$302 billion dollars is enough money to send every preschool student in America to school for 5 years, cover 150 times the purchasing power of Zimbabwe, or buy an island in Hawaii. It’s also roughly the GDP for Austria, Denmark, or Egypt. The world could save that much money every year with one simple action: breastfeeding.
The good news is, we are already making progress, and we can make more. Breastfeeding is a cornerstone of CARE’s nutrition programming in more than 100 programs in 34 countries.
What are we accomplishing?
- Changing Behavior with group education: Working through groups in the Nutrition at the Center program, in Benin, Exclusive Breast Feeding went from 40 to 76%, in Ethiopia from 54 to 60%, and in Bangladesh from 76 to 90%.
- Helping kids grow taller: Breastfeeding is a key behavior that SHOUHARDO promotes, and is one of the techniques that helped the percentage of stunted children drop 13 percentage points, more than double the national average.
- Changing Norms: In the Muskoka program, breastfeeding in Ethiopia increased 6 times (from 10% to76%), and nearly 6 times in Zimbabwe (from 5% to 28%) using the Social Analysis and Action method that focuses on changing the way communities think about supporting women.
How do we get there?
- Support Employees: CARE USA has developed and implemented a Breastfeeding Guidelines and Policy for all regular full- and part- time employees. Providing a positive work environment that recognizes parents’ responsibilities to their jobs and to their infants by acknowledging that, when an infant is able to exclusively and continually breastfeed, this benefits the family, the employer, and society.
- Think of women’s roles in life. CARE’s Farmers’ Field and Business Schools are supporting women smallholder farmers to increase their production, engage with markets, improve nutrition, and empower women. This includes education on the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months and continued breastfeeding to at least two years for the baby, the mother, and the family.
- Integrate your programming: Nutrition at the Center (N@C) is using an integrated approach, working across many sectors in governments and communities to tackle the underlying causes of malnutrition. Recognizing that exclusive and continued breastfeeding is one of the most effective interventions for improving childhood malnutrition—it’s a cornerstone of the approach. Teams in Bangladesh, Benin, Ethiopia, and Zambia have been creatively engaging communities, government, and partners through song and dance competitions, breastfeeding corners, and incorporating messages into existing VSLA meeting.
- Engage men: Women don’t make decisions alone, and need support from others. Kore Lavi in Haiti is piloting a program getting fathers involved in early childhood nutrition, including supporting breastfeeding.
Want to get involved?
August 1-7, 2016 is World Breastfeeding Week and the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) has identified this year’s theme as Breastfeeding: a key to Sustainable Development. Here’s what you can do:
INFORM people about the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how they relate to breastfeeding and Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF).
Some key facts and figures:
- Undernutrition, including sub-optimal breastfeeding underlies 45% of all deaths of children under 5 annually.
- The most prevalent form of malnutrition, stunting, is already prevalent at birth and continue to increase until 24 months of age. This window of opportunity for reducing stunting is the 1,000 days from conception until 2 years of age.
- Early investments in prevention of low birth weight, prevention of stunting, and early initiation of and exclusive followed by continued breastfeeding, contribute to reducing the risk of later obesity and chronic diseases.
- Not breastfeeding is associated with economic losses of about $302 billion annually or 0.49% of world gross national income.
- Families worldwide spend an estimated $54 billion annually purchasing milk formula.
- Adults who were breastfed as children were found to have higher incomes than those who were not breastfed.
FIRMLY ANCHOR breastfeeding as a key component of sustainable development. Think about how you can influence breastfeeding in your program.
GALVANIZE a variety of actions at all levels on breastfeeding and IYCF in the new era of the SDGs.
ENGAGE and collaborate with a wider range of actors around promotion, protection, and support of breastfeeding.
Looking for more information and a way to participate?
- Access the WBW webpage for additional resources
- Stay aware of the latest updates and information by liking WBW on Facebook
- Follow along on Twitter with trending Tweets #WBW2016 #breastfeeding #WBWGoals #SDGs @WABAsecretariat