Background
The World Health Organization, in collaboration with UNICEF, held the fourth meeting of the Global Network on the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (NetCode) in Geneva, from 10-12 April 2019.
The NetCode was established in 2015 under the leadership of WHO’s Department of Nutrition for Health and Development (WHO/NHD), in close collaboration with UNICEF’s Nutrition Section. The goals of NetCode are:
- to strengthen Member States’ and civil society capacity to monitor the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and all relevant World Health Assembly resolutions, and
- to facilitate the development, monitoring and enforcement of national Code legislation by Member States.
The meeting invited participants including representatives of Save the Children, Helen Keller International, the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), Action Contre la Faim, International Lactation Consultants Association, and La Leche League International. The meeting also saw the attendance of five Member States in which NetCode activities are active in 2019.
Presentations and discussions centred on:
- Providing updates on country-level progress on Code monitoring;
- Ramping up support to countries on Code monitoring;
- Understanding and implementing the International Code;
- Understanding the global landscape of Code implementation;
- Identifying emerging issues relevant to the context of Code implementation;
- Revisiting NetCode objectives.