A few days ago Susan Burger posted about reading US fund for UNICEF's annual
report, noticing that it did not mention breastfeeding once and the earful
that she received from  a US Fund for UNICEF staff member who did not like
this being pointed out. 

 

I had a look at the annual report today (you can too at
http://www.unicefusa.org/news/publications/annual-report/Unicef_2010_AnnRepo
rt_LR.pdf) it has several photos of infants, talks a lot about child
survival but as Susan observed, not a single mention of the intervention
that could prevent more under 5 year deaths than anything else (by a long
shot) ie breastfeeding. In addition, it was interesting to note that Pfizer,
which now owns Wyeth, is one of their major sources of funding. This is a
clear conflict of interest. UNICEF policy and field workers are fighting a
battle against companies such as Wyeth that are contributing to infant
deaths through marketing practices which breach the International Code of
Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.  Those of you who are in the US and
have supported UNICEF (which really does some fabulous work in infant
feeding) might like to contact US Fund for UNICEF and UNICEF headquarters
(http://www.unicefusa.org/about/contact/ and
http://www.unicef.org/about/contact_contactusform.php) and point out this
omission and this conflict of interest. It might also be worth asking
whether breastfeeding was omitted from the report because Pfizer is such an
important source of funding for US Fund for UNICEF. 

Just note that US Fund for UNICEF is essentially a fund raising organisation
and do little in the way of action themselves...they do however, have a
responsibility to act ethically (accepting money from a Code breacher is not
acting ethically), to represent the work of UNICEF accurately (and promoting
good infant feeding practices is a core activity of UNICEF- especially in
emergencies) and to educate their supporters about what really helps
children (and as I mentioned helping mothers to exclusively breastfeeding
and continue breastfeeding could prevent more deaths than anything else).
US Fund for UNICEF does not have a good track record in understanding the
importance of good infant feeding practices and in presenting this
information to their supporters...that will change if enough pressure is
applied.

 

Those who do contact UNICEF, I'd be interested in hearing what sort of
response you get.

 

Karleen Gribble

Australia


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