<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div>From: <b class="gmail_sendername" dir="auto">Patti Rundall</b> <span dir="auto"><<a href="mailto:prundall@babymilkaction.org">prundall@babymilkaction.org</a>></span><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br><u></u>
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<span class="m_2969746336049376832mcnPreviewText" style="display:none;font-size:0px;line-height:0px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;opacity:0;overflow:hidden">IBFAN statement of support to WHO 11th April 2020</span>
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<div style="text-align:center"><b>NGOs join forces in support of WHO following US threats<br>
to withdraw funding</b></div>
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<p style="text-align:center;margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#757575;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%"><b>IBFAN Statement of support for WHO - April 11 2020</b></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#757575;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">The International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) and partner civil society organisations are <a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=637fbff290&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">joining forces</a> to support the World Health Organisation in the face of attacks on its Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Some of the <a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=384c6d4007&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">attacks</a> seem to be politically motivated and orchestrated by US right-wing media and politicians. They have been fuelled by President Trump’s thinly veiled threats to renege on the US Government’s already (and frequently) <a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=986b4d01fb&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">overdue membership </a>fees.</p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#757575;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">For a member State to threaten to withdraw its funding for political reasons at any time – but especially now during the COVID-19 crisis – is dangerous and contravenes the duties all member States assume. The <a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=873a99aff9&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">WHO constitution</a> enshrines the right to health for all and demands that members <i>“respect the exclusively international character of the Director-General and the staff and not to seek to influence them.” </i>It also stipulates that each country has just one vote. This is regardless of the size of its financial contribution, and is indexed to the size of its Gross National Product. It’s not one dollar one vote.</p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#757575;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">IBFAN has witnessed US interference of WHO processes and the ‘Health for All’ agenda on countless occasions since the adoption in 1981 of the <i>International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes</i> – the first global consumer protection tool designed to tackle marketing that damages the health of babies. <a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=44ca877ae4&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">The US was the only country to vote against t</a>he Code’s adoption and in the following years has invariably undermined efforts to strengthen it, at the same time pushing WHO towards more industry friendly policies. In 2018, there was <a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=38a01ca5ef&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">shock and widespread media coverage </a>when the US administration put pressure on Ecuador to drop its support for a draft Resolution that aimed to protect breastfeeding and child health.</p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#757575;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">IBFAN is a leader in calls for WHO to adopt a sound conflict of interest policy to safeguard its independence and resist the unjustified influence of powerful interests, be they commercial or political. WHO’s total annual budget of $2.5bn – roughly equivalent to the budget of a large US hospital – has <a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=046f6682e9&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">not significantly increased</a> over three decades<i>. </i>That<i> </i>is a disgrace. The assessed contributions of member States must be substantially increased if WHO is to carry out its constitutional mandate.</p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#757575;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">WHO has a unique role as the world’s coordinating authority in setting global health norms. We need it now more than ever to guide country responses to COVID-19 (6) and the host of other global threats that we face – not least global heating, new viruses, anti-microbial resistance and non-communicable diseases.</p>
<a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=7203ec8798&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">full background notes in online version</a>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#757575;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">[1] WHO’s Director General from 1973-1988, Halfdan Mahler, masterminded the adoption of the Code in 1981 in response to the evidence that 1.5 million babies were dying every year because they are not breastfed.However, the original proposal for an international code came out of the US Senate Hearings organized by Senator Edward Kennedy. The issue kick-started a social movement and the world’s longest running <a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=ee331bf8b0&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">consumer boycott</a> of the world’s largest food company, Nestlé. A boycott that continues today.<br>
[2] WHO and UNICEF have issued <a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=67d141456b&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">advice</a> on breastfeeding and COVID-19 that is critically important to protect babies from harmful practices and <a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=3170929a5b&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">commercial exploitation</a>. In many countries mothers are separated from their babies after birth, with as yet no evidence that the virus is transmitted through breastmilk.</p>
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<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#757575;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:12px">For more information about <a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=4f90bc2031&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">IBFAN</a> and Baby Milk Action's work and other news check out our <a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=c19755cf83&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Policy Blog</a></span><br>
<a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=7718712816&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12px">COVID-19 WHO stresses the importance of breastfeeding</span></a><span style="font-size:12px"> we will post new information about COVID-19 on this link as it becomes available.</span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=199b21ea24&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Exporting countries put trade before the health of the planet and children</a><a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=3ff927065b&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank"> </a>IBFAN Press Release, Nov 2019</span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=45e22bff70&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">When the SUN casts a shadow </a> Our report on the human rights risks of multi-stakeholder partnerships</span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=1cdf1fd8f3&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Lancet Commission: A Future for the World’s Children says self regulation doesn’t work</a></span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=5d5f29f4c6&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Useful resources on the US UK trade deal</a></span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=160e4f86ed&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Making the Business Case for Nutrition Workshop</a></span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=502f0fd3b0&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Our response to the draft Global Action Plan (GAP) on child wasting</a></span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=843c81816d&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Civil Society letter about COI in the UN Food systems</a></span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=ef37db3b50&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">How ultra-processed food took over your shopping basket</a></span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=796a610d10&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">No ‘sunset clause’ please! NGOs call for vigilance on harmful marketing</a></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#757575;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:12px">for more click <a href="https://babymilkaction.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c4d7655f8113c74ec9ce9fec1&id=5549cdf7d7&e=7e35300207" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">here</a></span><br>
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