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In this issue you will find:

News from the network

  • Sad news from Francophone Africa

Global health governance

  • 136th WHO Executive Board and 68th World Health Assembly

Working on human rights
  • Breastfeeding at the Committee on the Rights of the Child
  • Collaborating with the Treaty Alliance to support a treaty on business and human rights
News from Switzerland
  • Switzerland under exam at the CRC Committee
  • Great success for IBFAN at the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights 2015
  • IBFAN at Nestlé's AGM
Project ANJE
  • Coordination and progress
Breastfeeding and the environment
  • What on Earth has infant feeding got to do with climate change? 

NEWS FROM THE NETWORK

Sad news from Francophone Africa

 
On behalf of IBFAN, IBFAN-GIFA is very sad to have to announce the death of their friend and colleague André Nikiéma, IBFAN Afrique regional coordinator, on 8th February 2015, after a sudden illness declared late 2014. 

André was a true IBFANer at heart. He worked hard to safeguard breastfeeding in francophone Africa from commercial pressures and to ensure that breastfeeding remained high on the development and national agendas. 
André’s presence will be sorely missed and we would like to pay tribute here to his dedication to IBFAN over the years. We extend our condolences to his family friends and colleagues all over the world.

GLOBAL HEALTH GOVERNANCE

136th WHO Executive Board and 68th World Health Assembly



The meetings of the  2015 WHO governing bodies (Executive Board and World Health Assembly)  had their agendas charged with issues of critical importance for the work of IBFAN. The IBFAN team participated actively in both meetings and made statements on issues related to maternal, infant and young child nutrition, follow up to the Second International Conference on Nutrition, Health and climate change, work of the Commission on ending childhood obesity and on the ongoing WHO reform. 
In case of the Reform, IBFAN continues being concerned about the draft Framework for WHO’s engagement with Non-state Actors.  It reasserts old channels of undue influence;  legitimizes new channels of undue industry influence and gives false impression that risks of interactions with transnational corporations philanthropies, including conflicts of interest, are adequately addressed. We hope that Member States, who will continue elaborating the Framework already in July, aiming at presenting a new draft for the January 2016 Executive Board, take our concerns expressed in a position paper and a statement to the Assembly into account.

WORKING ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Breastfeeding at the Committee on the Rights of the Child


The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) held its 68th session from January 12 to 30 and reviewed the progress of the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 11 countries: Colombia, Dominican Republic, the Gambia, Iraq, Jamaica, Mauritius, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Turkmenistan and Uruguay. IBFAN submitted alternative reports on the situation of infant and young child feeding in 10 of the reviewed countries (Colombia, Dominican Republic, the Gambia, Iraq, Jamaica, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Turkmenistan and Uruguay). The reports on Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay were prepared by the IBFAN groups in the countries. Click here to read the full post-session report.

In May-June 2015, the Committee held its 69th Session (May 18 to June 5). Six countries were under exam: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Mexico and Netherlands. IBFAN submitted alternative reports on the situation of infant and young child feeding in 5 of them (Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Mexico and Netherlands). The reports on Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Mexico and Netherlands were prepared by the IBFAN groups in the countries. Click here to read the full post-session report.

Collaborating with the Treaty Alliance to support a treaty on business and human rights



In June 2014, the UN Human Rights Council passed Resolution 26/9, which established an open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) to develop a legally binding instrument on business and human rights. The mandate of the IGWG is to elaborate on a treaty to regulate “transnational corporations and other business enterprises.” 
This resolution was strongly supported by the Treaty Alliance, a group of networks and campaign organizations collectively working to organize advocacy in support of developing binding international regulation to address corporate human rights abuses. IBFAN-GIFA is a member of the Treaty Alliance Facilitation Group and took active part in the first session of the IGWG on behalf of IBFAN. A joint written submission has been sent prior to the session, and several interventions from the floor were made during the different panel discussions. The first session of the IGWG concluded on July 10, following five days of inspiring talks. Civil society, expert panelists and many States engaged constructively in the negotiations, despite intense EU efforts to derail the process. For more information on IBFAN's engagement in the process, click here.

NEWS FROM SWITZERLAND

Switzerland under exam at the CRC Committee


In February 2015, the Committee of the Righs of the child issued its Concluding Observations to Switzerland, including strong recommendations on the need to strengthen national efforts to protect promote and support exclusive breastfeeding until 6 months and continued breastfeeding until 2 years or beyond, with safe and appropriate complementary feeding.
IBFAN-GIFA shared these recommendations with key partners in Geneva and Switzerland. For more information, see:
  • IBFAN statement to the CRC Committee (June 2014)
  • IBFAN alternative report on the situation of infant and young feeding in Switzerland (December 2014)
  • IBFAN press release (in French) on the situation of infant and young child feeding in the country (January 2015)

Great success for IBFAN at the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights 2015


End February 2015, IBFAN-GIFA partnered with the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights FIFDH for the projection of Tigers and a debate 'Nestlé in Pakistan: The Baby Formula Scandal exposed'.   
The feature film Tigers is based on the true story of a former Nestlé salesman, Syed Aamir Raza. He blew the whistle after the shock realization of the impact of his employer’s activities on children’s health. The detabe, in the presence of co-author Andy Paterson, Syed Aamir Raza himself, the Canadian whistleblower of Pakistani origin, Yasmine Motarjemi, ex-assistant Vice President, former corporate food safety manager at Nestlé and whistleblower, and Mike Brady, campaigns and networking coordinator. Baby Milk Action, a key member of IBFAN UK, focused on what actions can be taken when corporations violate human rights and lessons learned from the long campaign against Nestlé’s aggressive marketing of baby formula. For more information on this event, click here.

IBFAN at Nestlé's AGM
 

At Nestlé's latest Annual General Meeting, there were 2,446 shareholders present, representing 73.5% of voting rights. IBFAN was the only campaign group raising concerns about Nestlé’s business practices.

IBFAN-GIFA raised attention about the movie Tigers (see above) and further recalled that Nestlé's advertising is deceiving many mothers and urged the company to finally bring its policies and practices into line with the International Code of Breastmilk Substitutes. Click here to read the text of IBFAN-GIFA's intervention.
Baby Milk Action/IBFAN UK was also present and asked Nestlé Chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathé, to drop the public relations approach and address people’s concerns before he retires. Click here to read the text of Baby Milk Action's intervention.

PROJECT ANJE

Coordination and progress


IBFAN-GIFA, thanks to the 2014-2105 support of the Ville and Canton of Geneva, continues to support breastfeeding protection, promotion and support in francophone Africa through the regional IBFAN office in Burkina Faso, with a focus on Gabon, Burkina Faso and Niger. 
In May 2015, the new IBFAN Afrique coordinator Edouard Zerbo travelled to Geneva to attend the World Health Assembly and visited the Swiss donors. In June 2015, 2 IBFAN-GIFA staff members also travelled to Burkina Faso to visit the IBFAN Africa and local IBFAN member APAIB staff members and office. The aim was to take stock of progress and achievements of the project ANJE (alimentation du nourrisson et du jeune enfant) funded by the Ville and Canton of Geneva, and to a small degree by SIDA Sweden. With participation from IBFAN-GIFA, IBFAN Afrique and APAIB also kick-started a World Breastfeeding Trend re-assessment process.

For more information on the World Breastfeeding Trends initiative, click here. See also Burkina Faso WBTi first report.

BREASTFEEDING AND THE ENVIRONMENT

What on Earth has infant feeding got to do with climate change? 

Following on from the IBFAN publication 'Formula for disaster' in June 2015, ​and ​in view of the International Climate Change Conference in Paris in December 2015, IBFAN, with support from IBFAN-GIFA, published an advocacy paper entitled What on E​arth has infant feeding got to do with climate change? 

For more information on brestfeeding and the environment, click here.