PHA-Exch> WABA The Beginning of a New Cycle for beastfeeding

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: WABA waba at streamyx.com



The Secretariat is pleased to announce the relaunch of the WABA website! The
Information/Communication team have spent months designing a new look and
updating the information for the website to make it more appealing and
involving for the network. We hope that you will visit www.waba.org.my and
participate more pro-actively in contributing your news and relevant updates
for the website.



A few highlights for the year:



   1. Preparations for the World Breastfeeding Week 2008 on *Mother
   Support: Going for the Gold* are well underway. The calendar
   announcement is out; the photo contest is attracting quite a few photos and
   there is still more activities planned for the countdown to the Week,
   including the video contest and "virtual torch run". We continue to look
   forward to your participation in the myriads of ways witnessed from
   community to global level activities!

   2. Over the past year, WABA has focused on developing its Strategic
   Plan with the Core Partners (CPs) (ABM, IBFAN, ILCA, LLLI and Wellstart
   International) and had yet another productive Global Breastfeeding Partners'
   Meeting (GBPM) VI in Sept. 2007. The meeting resulted in defining clear
   areas of collaboration among the international organisations. Some of these
   include:

l        continued involvement in World Breastfeeding Week and other social
mobilisation activities;

l        joint and/or coordinated advocacy strategies on various key issues
(mother support, women and work, HIV, birthing, BFHI), including through a
Rapid Response System;

l        increased advocacy to health professionals and around the Doctors'
Initiative and addressing challenges in the medical curricula;

l        complementing Core Partner (CP) skills and activities in capacity
building/ training, including pre and in-service training and counseling
skills;

l        increased focus on gender mainstreaming, men and youth outreach and
involvement;

l        joint development of breastfeeding/IYCF materials and dissemination
of such materials;

l        continued coordination among the CPs through the annual GBPMs and a
possible Global Forum in the near future; and

l        a fellowship programme at the WABA Secretariat with CPs and network
partners.



   1. Prosperity is a particularly important theme this year when we move
   from one project cycle to another. The new WABA Strategic Plan has recently
   begun and runs from 2008 – 2012. There is some new programme focus,
   especially in the area of capacity building and e-activism, and new systems
   to be put in place at the Secretariat. Starting from last year the WABA
   Secretariat has been focusing on sowing the harvest for the new cycle and
   continues to do so. (Raising new funds for breastfeeding work continues to
   be a challenge but we stay hopeful!)

   2. We had the pleasure of working with ILCA's Senior Fellow, Sue
   Saunders, in Penang for over 2 months (Sept-Nov) helping to develop WABA's
   capacity building programme. She compiled the list of training courses
   globally, did several trainings of local mother support and spoke at major
   electronics factories, etc. to mention some of the activities. We look
   forward to the next ILCA Fellow as well as to new ones from the other
   organisations.

   3. Some of the key issues of concerns for 2008 and beyond brought up
   by the GBPM VI and which needs addressing by the network at large are:

l        corporate globalisation and its negative impact on breastfeeding
and optimal IYCF;

l        commercial complementary feeding;

l        public private partnerships (PPP): why should the breastfeeding
movement be concerned?

l        reinvigorating UN initiatives especially the BFHI globally.



All the CPs have agreed that these issues are of concern and will be
developing position papers to share with the network in the near future.



The Secretariat will be keeping you posted on further developments in our
programmes and policies in this new cycle from time to time.



We look forward to continued collaboration with our Core Partners and to
on-going work with all endorsers and friends of the network.
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