Subject: WBW 2003: Breastfeeding in a Globalised World 
Dear friends 

Greetings from WABA! We are pleased to send you the World Breastfeeding Week 2003 calendar announcement, Breastfeeding in a Globalised World. Feel free to translate and/or forward it to your network partners. The layout/PDF version of the calendar announcement will be available on the WABA website next week <www.waba.org.my>. 

WABA would like to thank you for your contributions and wish you a successful celebration for WBW 2003! 

With best regards from the WABA Secretariat. 

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Breastfeeding in a Globalised World 

Protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding and the best possible complementary feeding for infants and young children in the face of increasing globalisation is the challenge for World Breastfeeding Week 2003. 

In a world where trade agreements, world trade organisation priorities and the economic interests of transnational corporations over ride the needs of mothers and children; where policy makers face new barriers in implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and the relevant subsequent Resolutions of the World Health Assembly; where the privatisation of health care and hospitals puts profits ahead of public health needs and breastfeeding friendly practices; where global deregulation and harmonisation overrides national policies to regulate the marketing and labelling of infant feeding products; where genetic modification of our basic food commodities is pushed through trade or aid; and where mothers face infant feeding decisions in the face of the HIV epidemic;  health care workers, institutions, mothers, parents, women's groups and environmental networks are resorting to new and challenging ways to ensure that the protection for infant and child health, that is conferred through breastfeeding, remains safe and sound. 

This year we are exploring how we can meet these challenges and create a people's response to work both at global and local levels: as a global movement to impact the global structures, and in our local communities to help build a better environment for mothers and babies. An environment where the nurturing through breastfeeding is valued and where its protection is placed above economic priorities. 

WBW 2003 Goals 
Our goals for World Breastfeeding Week 2003 are: 
. To recognise the continued threats to breastfeeding practices 
. To realise our capacity and responsibilities to make this a better world for all 
. To respond by joining hands to create a powerful global force for mothers and babies 
. To recapture a breastfeeding culture for our world and for our communities 
. To think globally and to act locally 

New Challenges 
Trade agreements may: 
. Challenge a nation's Code implementation or national laws 
. Reduce a government's ability to determine national infant feeding policies, in matters such as: breastfeeding, genetically modified ingredients, labelling of infant foods, and food safety standards 

Increased privatisation means: 
. As private health care systems profit, public health systems are weakened 
. Decreased accountability of governments 
. UN agencies are increasingly losing independence by partnering with private businesses 
. Publicly funded breastfeeding programmes may be undermined e.g. BFHI 
. Increased disparity between rich and poor affecting especially women's health and nutrition 

New Opportunities 
. Increased cooperation within the breastfeeding movement to address common problems and issues 
. Greater understanding among various civil society organisations (CSO) working towards global and public justice 

Tools for Action 
Global tools and networks that breastfeeding advocates can work with: 
. International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes 
. Innocenti Declaration on the Protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding 
. WHO's Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding 
. World Health Assembly Resolutions on Infant and Young Child Nutrition 
. ILO conventions on maternity protection 
. Convention on the Rights of the Child 
. Universal Declaration of Human Rights 
. Codex Alimanterius Commission 
. Millennium Development Goals 
. Alliance for a Corporate Free UN 
. People's Health Movement 


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