Abstract
Work to Support Laws and Policies
ILCA has long been active in advocating for laws and policies related to infant and young child feeding. In May 2021, ILCA worked with the Global Breastfeeding Collective (GBC) to highlight the 40th Anniversary of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes (IC) during a webinar. ILCA has participated in annual NetCode meetings for several years, including the last one in June 2021; they are continuing to meet bimonthly this year. Furthermore, we are working on efforts to work with other healthcare professional associations to understand and meet their obligations under the IC, particularly with regard to sponsorship.
It is critically important that governments support and provide funding for skilled breastfeeding counseling. ILCA worked with the GBC to organize a webinar in August 2021 introducing new tools for breastfeeding counselling, with more than 4100 registrants from over 170 countries.
ILCA has contributed to many advocacy briefs of the GBC, including Breastfeeding and Family Friendly Policies, Skilled Breastfeeding Counselling, and The Role of Midwives and Nurses in Protecting, Promoting, and Supporting Breastfeeding.
We continue to work to advocate for policies to support breastfeeding globally. We depend on your membership to do this work. Your membership dollars help fund this work and, more importantly, we utilize the local knowledge, influential contacts, and collective power of our members as we advocate in a country or region, or on the global stage. If you are not currently a member of ILCA, go to www.ilca.org to join now. We welcome your identification of any law or policy efforts in your country or region that might benefit from further support.