The World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) was established in 1992 to celebrate the importance of breastfeeding and is coordinated annually by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA). WBW is officially celebrated from the 1 -7 August every year to mark the anniversary of the Innocenti Declaration, although some countries choose to celebrate it at different times of the year. The main idea behind WBW was to offer an opportunity for people worldwide to join together in celebration and action. WBW also enables us to evaluate our progress towards the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding.

Previous WBW themes were centred on current global issues. However, since 2016, we have aligned our WBW campaign with the larger United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We call this the WBW-SDGs Campaign. Alignment with the SDGs will bring more people and organisations onboard and enable breastfeeding to be linked to all the major development agendae. In 2016, we began our 15-year journey to achieve sustainable development through breastfeeding by 2030. We clustered the UN SDGs into 4 Thematic Areas that relate to each other and to breastfeeding respectively. The 4 Thematic Areas will be celebrated in cycles until 2029.  2030 will be about taking stock of our progress, overcoming challenges and planning for work beyond the SDGs.

This year’s WBW theme is on Nutrition, Food Security and Poverty Reduction. With the slogan, Breastfeeding: Foundation of Life, #WBW2018 goals are to prevent malnutrition in all its forms, ensure food security even in times of crises and break the cycle of poverty. As part of this initiative, WABA is providing seed grants to organisations to plan activities that will inform, anchor, engage and galvanise on breastfeeding as the foundation for life.

WBW celebrants are encouraged to submit the Pledge Form to showcase their events which will be displayed on our Pledge Map. Projects that fulfil the criteria for selection will be shortlisted for seed grants. We are looking especially for projects that are innovative, impactful,  involve a range of stakeholders and can be replicated elsewhere.

• To​ ​inform​ ​people about​ ​the​ ​links​ ​between​​ good ​nutrition, ​​food​ ​security​ ​and​ ​poverty reduction and breastfeeding.
• Anchor​ ​breastfeeding​ ​as the foundation of life.
• Engage ​with individuals and organisation for greater impact.
• Galvanise action to advance breastfeeding as a part of good nutrition, food security and poverty reduction.

• Awareness of the links between good nutrition, food security, poverty reduction and breastfeeding will be raised.
• Awareness of the risks and disadvantages of artificial feeding, especially in vulnerable populations will be raised.
• Breastfeeding will be promoted as a way of reducing carbon footprint.
• Breastfeeding will be integrated into programmes that address maternal, newborn, child, adolescent health and development.
• Protection, promotion and support of exclusive breastfeeding will be included in programmes to combat overweight and obesity.
• Capacity of multidisciplinary teams of professional and lay workers in breastfeeding will be built to create an enabling environment for mothers to continue breastfeeding.
• Greater investment in breastfeeding programmes will be advocated at all levels.

A seed grant project should be developed to achieve one or more of the above outputs. The amount for each seed grant will be USD 1000 per project. We are offering 26 seed grants to commemorate our 26 years of World Breastfeeding Week celebrations.

Pledges will be assessed using the following criteria:

1. The seed grant should be used to either start a new programme or to strengthen an existing effort to link breastfeeding to good nutrition and/or food security and/or poverty reduction.
2. The project has a clear and attainable plan of action.
3. Ability to conduct the seed grant project between July-August 2018. The project must be completed by the end of August and the final report and documentation must be submitted before the end of September 2018.
4. Registered organisations/groups from low- to middle-income countries (Africa, Asia and Latin America Caribbean) will be prioritised.
5. The project involves men and youth participants.
6. Innovative initiatives and adaptability to other countries and organisations are important.

Mid June – Announcement of WBW Seed Grant application

End June – Selection of Pledges to apply for Seed Grant Project

Early July – Announcement of WBW Seed Grant recipients

July - August 2018        – Implementation of Seed Grant Projects

By end Sept 2018          – Reporting and Evaluation

Pledge your activities on our website by 20 June 2018. Selected organisations will then be invited to apply for a seed grant.

For further information contact [email protected].