The Code and the Operational Guidance

This mother had exclusively breastfed all her children, including this baby whom she breastfed throughout the war in Lebanon.

The aim of the International Code of the Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes is to protect and promote breastfeeding, and to ensure the proper use of breastmilk substitutes, when they are necessary, on the basis of adequate information and through appropriate marketing and distribution.

The Code was endorsed by the World Health Assembly (WHA) in 1981. Subsequent resolutions have the same authority and together with the original are referred to as 'the Code'.

The Code sets out the responsibilities of the different actors including the infant food industry, health workers, national governments and concerned organisations. The Code is a minimum requirement to be enacted in its entirety by all UN member states.

The Code can be downloaded from http://www.ibfan.org/English/resource/who/fullcode.html

The Operational Guidance for Emergency Relief Staff and Programme Managers on Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies (Ops Guidance) provides concise, practical (but non technical) guidance on how to ensure appropriate infant and young child feeding in emergencies.

It was first produced in 2001 by an Interagency working group on infant feeding in emergencies, and recently updated by the IFE Core Group (version 2.0. May 2006).

The Ops Guidance is available in print from ENN or can be downloaded from http://www.ennonline.net See also p.9 this issue.