World Breastfeeding Week 2015 Objectives

Elements of Support





Maternity Protection (MP) Legislation & Practices (Long-Term)

  • Update yourself on the status of MP in your country.
  • Link with potential partners who work on issues relating to working women and gender equality in your country - including trade unions, worker’s groups, women’s organisations - to galvanise action for better Maternity Protection.
  • Check out the ‘Nine Steps to a Successful Maternity Protection Campaign’: Step 1 - Review your resources; Step 2 - Assess the national situation; Step 3 - Form an action group; Step 4 - Do an in-depth national assessment; Step 5 - Work with our key partner e.g. the trade unions; Step 6 - Develop a plan of action; Step 7 - Carry out the plan of action; Step 8 - Monitor and evaluate the work accomplished; Step 9 - Follow up and reporting on activities. See more here: www.waba.org.my/whatwedo/womenandwork/pdf/06a.pdf


Workplace Breastfeeding Support Programmes (Short-Term)

  • Cooperate with more employers to create breastfeeding friendly rooms or corners/spaces at the workplace.
  • Set up a Breastfeeding or Family/Parent-Friendly award system for supportive employers to motivate more employers to implement breastfeeding-friendly practices!
  • Ensure that hospitals and health care centres/clinics are also mother-friendly workplaces. ** For more see the SUPPORT ELEMENT in the diagram below


Community Breastfeeding Support & The Informal Sector

  • Start up or strengthen local Peer Counselling and/or mother support groups to respond to the needs of women working in more marginalised sectors.
  • Identify appropriate local authorities to look for creative ways to bring maternity protection benefits to women in the informal economy.
  • Identify women’s groups in your community or country that may have data on the situation of women in the informal economy. Combine forces to see how best to respond to women’s needs in the informal economy to balance work, breastfeeding and child-rearing.


For more see also:
a) “How to Support Women in the Informal Economy to Combine Their Productive and Reproductive Roles”, Section 9 of Maternity Protection Campaign Kit,
b) “Extending maternity protection to women in the informal economy: An overview of community-based health-financing schemes” ILO Working Paper.



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World Breastfeeding Week

1 - 7 August 2015

BREASTFEEDING AND WORK

LET’S MAKE IT WORK!

 

WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK (Coordinated by WABA)

1-7 August 2015


End of Year THANK YOU, and Announcement of WBW 2016 Slogan and Theme

Dear World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) 2015 Celebrants and Supporters,

Season’s Greetings from the WABA Secretariat!

As we approach the end of 2015, WABA would like to sincerely thank all WBW celebrants from across the world who celebrated World Breastfeeding Week so positively and enthusiastically.

Read the full post here





This World Breastfeeding Week, WABA calls for concerted global action to support women to combine breastfeeding and work. Whether a woman is working in the formal, non-formal or home setting, it is necessary that she is empowered in claiming her and her baby’s right to breastfeed.

photo1The WBW 2015 theme on working women and breastfeeding revisits the 1993 WBW campaign on the Mother-Friendly Workplace Initiative. Much has been achieved in 22 years of global action supporting women in combining breastfeeding and work, particularly the adoption of the revised ILO Convention 183 on Maternity Protection with much stronger maternity entitlements, and more country actions on improving national laws and practices. At the workplace level, we have also seen more actions taken to set up breastfeeding or mother-friendly workplaces including awards for breastfeeding-friendly employers, as well as greater mass awareness on working women’s rights to breastfeed.

photo2The Innocenti Declaration (1990) recognised that breastfeeding provides ideal nutrition for infants and contributes to their healthy growth and development. There is much that remains to be done despite 25 years of hard work, particularly on the fourth Innocenti target that calls on governments to “…enact imaginative legislation protecting the breastfeeding rights of working women and establish means for its enforcement”.

WABA calls for:
  • concerted global action to support women to combine breastfeeding and work, whether in the formal sector, non-formal sector, or at home
  • ratification and implementation of maternity protection laws and regulations by governments, in line with the ILO Maternity Protection Convention
  • inclusion of breastfeeding target indicators in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

photo3With the WBW 2015 campaign, WABA and its partners at global, regional and national levels aim to empower and support ALL women, working in both the formal and informal sectors, to adequately combine work with child-rearing, particularly breastfeeding. (We define work in its broadest form from paid employment, self-employment, seasonal and contract work to unpaid home and care work).

Various strategies exist to support women working in your country or community from long-term actions to short-term actions. Together, we can make it work!

Here are a few ideas to kick off your WBW 2015 planning process:


objectives
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elements
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photo3The WABA Coordinated World Breastfeeding Week is part of the gBICS (Global Breastfeeding Initiative for Child Survival) Programme entitled: "Enhancing Breastfeeding Rates Contributes to Women's Rights, Health, and a Sustainable Environment". The gBICS Programme aims to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development - beyond the Millennium Development Goals - by scaling up breastfeeding and infant and young child interventions and transforming Policies into Practice which contributes to efforts aimed at addressing climate change and gender inequality in the framework of human rights. WABA is grateful to NORAD (the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation) for its support of gBICS.

WABA would also like to acknowledge the support of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organisation (WHO), as well as the participation of our Core Partners - Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM), International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA), La Leche League International (LLLI), and Wellstart International - in the successful coordination of World Breastfeeding Week.



  What's New

  WBW 2015 Letters of Support


Joint WBW2015 Letter of Support from UNICEF and WHO.

PAHO WBW2015 Press Release

PAHO Technical Brief for WBW2015

Letter of Support from Greek Government

USDA's official WBW2015 Proclamation






WABA Press Release

Celebrate WBW2015 - take action to support
women combine breastfeeding and work!
Read the full WABA Press Release here


Statement by Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General, on the occasion of WBW 2015
See link

Check out UNICEF's photo essay for WBW2015 on empowering women to combine work with breastfeeding.
See UNICEF WBW page


See WHO's WBW page
click to view


World Breastfeeding Week 2015 is just round the corner! Join us in celebrating #WBW2015, and use our Social Media Toolkit to promote your own event.

Let's make Breastfeeding and Work, work!


WBW action folders are now available!
View the Action Folder and inserts at our Download page

Congratulations to photo contest winners!

View the photo contest results here

WBW 2015 Pledge forms are now available in download page

WBW 2015 Calendars are available at Download page

Get your photo contest entry form at Download page
Closing date for contest entry is 17th April 2015.
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  Share WBW

 


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  Disclaimer
WABA does not accept sponsorship of any kind from companies producing breastmilk substitutes, related equipment and complementary foods. WABA encourages all participants of World Breastfeeding Week to respect and follow this ethical stance.