Audio recording

Women and girls are suffering even more egregious violations of their human rights during emergencies and the the COVID-19 pandemic, according to UN experts. Despite global health guidance emphasising that breastfeeding should be encouraged and supported, the human rights of women and children are being violated through proliferation of maternity care barriers to breastfeeding, including separation of newborns from mothers.

In times of crisis and emergency, including COVID-19, the implementation of the WHO/UNICEF Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding and the Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies Operational Guidance (OG-IFE) is more important than ever, but it is hindered by lack of investment in breastfeeding policies and plans nationally and at the local level.

This webinar aims to galvanise efforts to improve breastfeeding policies and funding in national budgets, by applying gender budgeting and World Breastfeeding Trends initiative (WBTi) tools. Our webinar on 20 April took a global perspective on gender and emergency management and breastfeeding emergency and pandemic preparedness and response planning, at the same time provided insights on the recent Australian experience.

Details for the next event on 18 May 2020 in this series is available here.

We acknowledge and thank the The Gender Institute, ANU for funding. We also appreciate the support of Save the Children UK, and the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative, Breastfeeding Promotion Network Of India.