World Breastfeeding Week Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement Communications Toolkit

This toolkit will be updated annually to reflect the theme of the annual year.

Background

Each year, from 1-7 August, countries, organizations and nutrition champions celebrate World Breastfeeding Week all over the world. In 2022, under its theme ‘Step up for Breastfeeding - Educate and Support’, this week was critical to raise awareness around the importance of breastfeeding as a fundament of good nutrition, food security and reduction of inequalities.

World Breastfeeding Week 2022 came at a critical time for the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement's 65 Countries focusing on safeguarding and advancing national nutrition efforts while dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing global food and nutrition crisis.

This is why seeing countries stepping up for breastfeeding in 2022 was more important and remarkable than ever.

With this social media toolkit, the SUN Movement aims at:

Amplifying the initiatives countries are carrying out to ‘Step up for Breastfeeding - Educate and Support’;
Supporting countries in raising awareness on the importance of breastfeeding;
Calling on all stakeholders to step up for breastfeeding as part of good nutrition, food security and reduction of inequalities;
Calling on governments, health workers, and the baby food industry to end exploitative formula milk marketing and fully implement and abide by the Code requirements.

Key Messages

The importance of breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and survival. Babies who are fed nothing but breastmilk from birth through their first 6 months of life get the best start. However, nearly 2 out of 3 infants are not exclusively breastfed for the recommended 6 months—a rate that has not improved in 2 decades (World Health Organization)
Breastfeeding is cost effective and benefits not just mothers and children, but also entire economies. Every $1 invested in breastfeeding yields $35 in economic returns. (1’000 Days)
Exclusively breastfed babies are 14 times less likely to die than babies who are not breastfed.
Over 800 000 child deaths and 20 000 mothers each year could be averted through universal breastfeeding, along with economic savings of US$300 billion (Lancet, 2016).
Achieving the target of increasing the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months up to at least 50% by 2025 is within reach.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the current food and nutrition crisis due to Russia’s war on Ukraine have wiped out a lot of the progress made.
Globally, we are off track to meet five out of six global maternal, infant, and young children nutrition targets, on stunting, wasting, low birth weight, anemia and childhood overweight. But working together, we can achieve the breastfeeding target. (Global Nutrition Report)

Create breastfeeding-friendly environments for mothers and babies (source: Alive & Thrive)

Ensuring the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes – established to protect mothers from aggressive marketing practices by the baby food industry – is fully implemented by governments, health workers and industry.
Ensuring healthcare workers have the resources and information they need to effectively support mothers to breastfeed, including through global efforts such as the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative, and guidelines on breastfeeding counselling.
Ensuring employers allow women the time and space they need to breastfeed; including paid parental leave with longer maternity leave; safe places for breastfeeding in the workplace; access to affordable and good-quality childcare; and universal child benefits and adequate wages.
Companies must rethink their messaging on breastfeeding and become an active part of the solution including decent maternity leave, workforce nutrition, space to breastfeed at work, etc.

Call to action for breast-milk substitutes (BMS) manufacturing companies:

Accelerated compliance with the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitute and accelerated actions are needed to meet the target.
The multiple crises affecting the world today together with resource limitations have forced the world to accelerate synergies. Private sector engagement is crucial to achieving global nutrition goals.
Inappropriate and misleading marketing of BMS significantly undermines gains made in infant and young child feeding and health and household economics.
The opportunity to do no harm and support the survival of infant and young children and mothers is a viable and sustainable business model.

Social media assets

Share our key messages and join the conversation on World Breastfeeding Week (1-7 August) by using these suggested posts alongside our downloadable resources.

DOWNLOAD OUR SOCIAL MEDIA GRAPHICS

1.

Breastmilk is a baby’s first vaccine, the first and best protection they have against illness and disease.

This #WorldBreastfeedingWeek, join @SUN_Movement countries and #stepupforbreastfeeding. 🤱🆙

2.

Even though breastfeeding 🤱 is the best way to protect newborns from malnutrition, infections, and disease, today only nearly 2 out of 3 infants are not exclusively breastfed for the recommended 6 months.

We must #stepupforbreastfeeding. 🆙

3.

#DYK children who are breastfed are 1️⃣4️⃣x more likely to survive and not die from malnutrition?

This #WorldBreastfeedingWeek, join @SUN_Movement countries and #stepupforbreastfeeding. 🤱🆙

4.

This week is #WorldBreastfeedingWeek.

Through universal breastfeeding, each year we can:

🤱🏿avert the death of over 800 000 children and 20 000 mothers;

🤱🏽save US$300 billion.

We must #StepUpForBreastfeeding!

5.

Countries across the globe 🌐 are joining hands 🤝 to #stepupforbreastfeeding.

This #WorldBreastfeedingWeek 🤱🏽, check out their exciting activities and amplify them using the latest @SUN_Movement communications toolkit: https://adobe.ly/3oAIfc8

6.

To #stepupforbreastfeeding, business must create breastfeeding-friendly environments for mothers and babies by:

🤱🏽Allowing time and space to breastfeed;

👶🏿Providing access to affordable childcare;

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦Including paid parental leave;

💵Including child benefits and adequate wages.

Social Media Handles

@SUN_Movement
@GerdaVerburg
@WABAsecretariat
@UN_Nutrition
@SUNCSN
@SUNBizNet

Social Media Hashtags

#WorldBreastFeedingWeek
#WBW2022
#breastfeeding
#worldbreastfeedingweek2022
#stepupforbreastfeeding

SUN Countries Stepping Up for Breastfeeding

Countries across the globe are joining hands to step up for breastfeeding. Here below are some great examples of what SUN countries are doing through their governmental initiatives and their civil society alliances.

Ethiopia:

In Ethiopia, the Ministry of Health together with all nutrition actors has been facilitating the preparatory activities for this year’s World Breastfeeding Week. These will include:

Dissemination of Social Behavior Change Communications messages on the importance of breastfeeding;
A consultation on the Establishment of a Donated Human Milk Bank on an identified IDP site;
One national event workshop with the presence of higher officials.

Democratic Republic of Congo

The official launch of World Breastfeeding Week in DRC at the national level will take place on Tuesday, August 09, 2022 through the message of his Excellency, the Minister of Public Health, Hygiene and Prevention in different radio channels, television, print media, online press, social networks etc.

Each province will also have to relay the different activities by organizing a joint campaign "Stronger with Breastmilk Only" during the World Breastfeeding Week by adapting the activities according to its context and its resources with the support made available while involving all the partners of nutrition and communication partners.

Sensitization activities on the national code for breastfeeding will also be conducted at the scientific school of Kinshasa, while healthcare workers, pediatricians, gynecologists and general practitioners will be invited to attend a workshop at the national level on the importance of breastfeeding.

Colombia:

Fundación Éxito, a civil society organization based in Colombia, is extremely active in breastfeeding campaigns. As a result of public-private partnerships, the foundation carried out a number of initiatives at the local level and can celebrate important achievements like:

The implementation of the Ten-Year Breastfeeding Plan 2021-2030 in the 32 departments of Colombia. Through the articulation between Fundación Éxito, Fundación Salutia and the Presidential Council for Children and Adolescents, a strategy was defined to amplify in the first half of 2022, in each of the 32 departments of Colombia, the content of the Ten-Year Breastfeeding Plan, considered the public policy roadmap in favor of breastfeeding. With this exercise, the 32 departmental Breastfeeding Plans were designed and socialized with more than 8,000 health, government, health entities and members of civil society.
#Lactatón: Trademark that materializes a nationwide mobilization led by Fundación Éxito in coordination with departmental and municipal governments, the media, academia, institutions working with the maternal and child population, civil society in general, among others. During all 8 versions of #Lactatón (from 2016 to 2022), it has grown in the saving message of Breastfeeding and there have been great results. However, while recognizing these results, the #Lactatón 2022 is undoubtedly the first Lactatón that includes all the central axes of the protection of breastfeeding and that are also established in the Ten-Year Breastfeeding Plan 2021-2030, since this year not only mobilization, but also academic training and public policy advocacy, the latter materialized in the appropriation and implementation in the territories of the Ten-Year Breastfeeding Plan.
Held in the last week of May, the third International Breastfeeding Congress co-hosted by the Foundation brought together experts from 15 countries from the 5 continents, and had 5,000 participants. The updating of knowledge and learning of practices and experiences that favor infant nutrition marked a new milestone in this academic meeting that was an active part of the #Lactathon 2022.
Thanks to extensive training carried out by civil society organizations, 200 community mothers and fathers will be awarded in August with the title of "Early Childhood Technicians", acquiring knowledge and skills on issues related to the promotion and protection of breastfeeding and adequate complementary feeding.
Breastfeeding mobilization in the municipalities in coordination with Mayors.
The development of a breastfeeding toolkit for the work environment with technical recommendations for companies to implement Breastfeeding Family Friendly Rooms in the Work Environment.

Cambodia:

Since 2001, the Cambodian National Nutrition Program (NNP) and the members of the Nutrition Working Group (NWG) have conducted an annual celebration of global World Breastfeeding Week

For 2022, the country's engagement plan includes:

A capacity building workshop conducted for SUN CSA Cambodia members, development partners, CARD, NNP, PHD, OD and HC to discuss, prepare for, and build their capacity to conduct World Breastfeeding Week celebrations.
At the national lavel, this year, based on their own resource, each institution/organization will celebrate the week using agreed theme and slogans. Each event should mobilize different groups of breastfeeding mothers, women of reproductive age, village support groups, mother support groups, caretakers, members of civil society, development partners, youth/students and government officials who can benefit from the information and services on offer.
On the sub-national level, the World Breastfeeding Week event support kits will be distributed with information regarding the key goals for this year and suggested activities that may take place. The kits will include a copy of the video documentary, leaflets, banners, t-shirts, WBW booklets and posters. Activities include small group education sessions, Q&A sessions with prizes and video displays at referral hospitals, health centres, and the community, and a mobile loudspeaker activity.

The following online activities are proposed across the SUN CSA Cambodia, Youth Nutrition Champions, and any other relevant organizations’ Facebook pages, as well as dissemination through platforms such as Telegram:

Regular information sharing and awareness-raising posts;
Online quiz competitions on the topic of breastfeeding;
Production and dissemination of two videos on the importance of breastmilk/breastfeeding and best practices for breastfeeding and working mothers;
Contests for breastfeeding mothers;
Awareness raising about the benefit of exclusive breastfeeding, existing evidence of harmful commercial marketing strategies and tactics delivered using women’s voices
Awareness raising on the risks of BMS and the fact that BMS marketing is undermining breastfeeding and detrimental to Khmer children health.

Bangladesh:

World Breastfeeding Week 2022 celebrations in Bangladesh will include:

High level meetings with Ministers and Senior Officials,
Experience sharing activities like workshops in hospitals and health centers and quiz competitions,
A local campaign on the importance of breastfeeding being promoted through ad spaces in print version and on television.

Liberia:

Liberia’s planned activities for World Breastfeeding Week Celebrations include:

One-day meeting with the mother support group
One-day meeting with chiefs, elders, superintendents etc
One-day for radio talk show
One-day for the launch within your respective counties

Also, key breastfeeding messages are expected to be aired on the most widely listen-to radio station and these will focus on:

Benefits/importance of breastfeeding & challenges
Awareness on the Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitute
Awareness on the maternity and paternity leave
Celebrate the successful breastfeeding mother among the women group (mothers who breastfed their babies from birth to six months without water and food)

Comoros:

The country has developed some key messages in Comorian and French to support mothers in their choice to breastfeed, amplifying the benefits of it for both them and their children.

Ecuador:

The Ministry of Social and Economic Inclusion, through its technical Secretariat to Fight Child Malnutrition, will provide prenatal and neonatal family education sessions, including, among others: hand washing, food hygiene, breastfeeding and safe water consumption. Moreover, counseling sessions will be carried out through a consultancy via the Inter-American Development Bank, which will strengthen the country’s capacity in supporting breastfeeding mothers.

The Undersecretariat for Comprehensive Child Development has also developed a package of counseling cards for pregnant women and families with a specific focus on breastfeeding, which the Government will amplify during World Breastfeeding Week 2022.

Viet Nam:

To celebrate World Breastfeeding Week 2022, the Ministry of Health Vietnam recommends the departments of Health of provinces and centrally-run cities, based on actual local conditions, organize implementation and direct local health units to continue maintaining activities to promote breastfeeding.

Focus activities include:

Communicating to all levels, sectors and people about the importance of breastfeeding for the health of mothers, infants and children, especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and other diseases current infection. Breast milk not only ensures long-term health for mothers and children, but also helps improve health and protect infants and children during the Covid-19 pandemic.
To promote health and prevent the risk of COVID-19 infection in pregnant women and newborns, it is necessary to integrate information for pregnant women and mothers of young children in the care before, during and after birth on regulations on disease prevention and control as well as the benefits of early breastfeeding within the first hour after birth, exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months and breastfeeding for up to 24 months.
Coordinate with relevant departments, agencies and mass organizations to communicate to employers about the benefits of breastfeeding to practical support for mothers who exclusively breastfeed their babies for the first 6 months, continue to breastfeed for up to 24 months, and how to maintain their milk supply when mothers return to work after 6 months of maternity leave.
The training strengthens the capacity of stakeholders in building an environment-friendly environment to protect, promote and support breastfeeding for mothers.

Moreover, hospitals specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, and general hospitals with obstetrics and paediatric departments under the Ministry of Health are encouraged to maintain counseling activities for pregnant women and mothers on the benefits of breastfeeding; instructing breastfeeding mothers to breastfeed properly, exclusively for the first 6 months, to breastfeed for up to 24 months, and to maintain breast milk supply.

They are also asked to provide essential maternal care, neonates during and immediately after birth (EENC), including cases of caesarean section to contribute to increase the percentage of infants who are breastfed early within the first hour after birth.

Costa Rica:

As part of the celebration of World Breastfeeding Week the National Directorate of CEN-CINAI of Costa Rica, joins the global campaign to raise awareness and encourage action on issues related to breastfeeding.

For the month of August, promotional activities are being carried out in the establishments nationwide, such as those executed in previous years, which include messages amplification on ads spaces around the various districts, sensitivation and educational activities across health centres and schools.

To support these efforts, the Directorate has also developed:

A National Report on activities to promote World Breastfeeding Week in the context of the pandemic by COVID-19, 2021.
A report following the webinar on Food-Based Dietary Guidelines for the first 1000 days of life and their adoption in CEN-CINAI in the framework of the National Nutrition Week, 2022.
Posters to distrivute across the country to promote World Breastfeeidng Week messages.

Nigeria:

World Breastfeeding Week activities in Nigeria include:

A Ministerial press briefing followed by a national Breastfeeding Symposium
A High level meeting with key decision makers on creation of breastfeeding spaces in work/public places
Sensitization visit to selected health facilities and religious centers
A massive media campaign starting in August: Television and radio talk shows, jingles, billboards, posters, etc. for public sensitization

SUN Movement Coordinator Video Statement

Watch and share the World Breastfeeding Week video statement from Gerda Verburg, SUN Movement Coordinator and UN Assistant Secretary-General.

Partners' materials:

Together with SUN Countries, Partner Organizations from all over the world will be amplifying World Breastfeeding week, namely:

The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) is a global network of individuals and organisations dedicated to the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding worldwide. Annually, WABA coordinates and organises the World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) between Aug 1-7. Their resources for this important week can be found here.
The 1’000 Days team will be launching their 2022 Breastfeeding Guide.

Events:

The Breastfeeding Collective is hosting twin webinars on 3rd August, focused on sharing knowledge and experiences of implementing / refreshing the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding / Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative in response to the updated guidance released in 2018.

Register here

UNICEF's resources on parenting and family friendly polices:

For any additional information, please contact the SUN Movement Secretariat at info@scalingupnutrition.org

VISIT THE SCALING UP NUTRITION MOVEMENT WEBSITE

Appreciate

Credits:

Created with images by pikselstock - "Mother Breastfeeding Baby At Home " • Jennie - "woman holding pregnant belly" • Ninja SS - "Asia mother holding her newborn child. Mother breast feeding baby at home." • Onuchcha - "A mother is having fun with her cute baby boy in a portable carry bag. Expressing warm loving caring feeling. Family relationship and mother-baby care concept." • Zeekeh - "My trip to Liberia Book2" • stevenjfrancis - "Sapa hill tribe woman and baby" • Belen B Massieu - "African woman doctor checking on a pregnant patient" • pingpao - "Mother breastfeeding her newborn baby girl. Baby happy while drinking milk from mother's breast. Vintage color tone."