Do YOU want to help infants in emergencies?
Click on the links below to find out what you can do to help...
You can become part of an international effort to improve practice
Since 1999, an international collaboration of organisations involved in emergency work has been developing practical guidelines and training materials to assist agencies to support infants and young children in emergencies and to ensure aid operations do no harm.
The Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies Core Group (IFE Core Group), as it is known, has developed an Operational Guidance on Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies that spells out, in a practical way, the best practice in this area. An increasing number of agencies are signing up to support the Operational Guidance, to show that they are working towards good practice within their agency. The IFE Core Group has also produced materials for aid agencies to use in training staff.
You can help to spread the word about the Operational Guidance, provide encouragement for aid agencies to appropriately train staff and help to keep aid agencies, infant formula manufacturers, governments and members of the public accountable for their actions.
Make aid agencies accountable
Aid agencies are responsible for ensuring that their staff act appropriately and protect babies in emergencies via support for breastfeeding and targeted distribution of infant formula. They are also responsible for ensuring that organisations with whom they partner act appropriately.
The issue of partner organisations is an important one. Often aid agencies do not have their own staff on the site of an emergency and so partner with local organisations to facilitate the provision of aid. They may provide funds and/or supplies to the partner organisation. These local organisations can be responsible for problematic distribution of infant formula and powdered milk, however, it is not uncommon for aid agencies to be unaware of the details of the activities of their partners. In addition, aid agencies may deny responsibility for the actions of their partners and state that their partners are best placed to make decisions about what needs to be done with funds or supplies. However, the situation is clear, aid agencies or donor groups are responsible for the actions of their partners and for ensuring that they act in an appropriate way.
Ordinary people, like you, can help to protect babies who are affected by emergencies by making sure that the aid agencies to whom you donate act in a proper manner. In fact, your donation is at the beginning of the chain of action and you are in a very good position to impact the activities and priorities of aid agencies. Aid agencies want to keep those who donate to them happy.
Ask some questions
Agencies understand that it is important for people to know that their donations are being well spent and so are usually very happy for members of the public to contact them about their work. A good time to contact aid agencies is when they are actually involved in an emergency but it is possible to contact them at any time. You may wish to call aid agencies and ask about their activities in relation to the distribution of infant formula or powdered milk and breastfeeding support. The following question guide may assist you in the process of stopping the harm of the inappropriate distribution of powdered milk and infant formula.
Be aware that aid agencies will wish to reassure you that you can trust them and that they are doing a good job and may attempt to do that without providing much detail. You may need to be assertive and persistent to get your questions answered satisfactorily. If aid agencies get enough calls about this issue, they will make sure that best practice is followed by developing good policies on the management of powdered milk and infant formula and ensuring that staff are adequately trained.
In addition to calling aid agencies, you may wish to write a letter to the director of aid agencies stating your concerns and advising that as someone who donates (or considering donating) to their organisation you wish to ensure that the agency is protecting babies during emergencies through appropriate policies and practices. Ask for a response. Sample letter 1 is an example of the sort of letter you could send. You may wish to modify this letter to suit your own circumstances.
You may find that the response to your first telephone call or letter does not provide satisfactory answers to all of the questions you asked. It is appropriate to follow up with further telephone calls or letters. The agency may also refer you to resources of policy documents that they say show that they act appropriately. It is important to check these resources and policies because it is not uncommon for there to be a difference between what they say they do and what their policies/resources indicate they do. They may also state that they are confident that they are doing the right thing and that they do not feel that they need to have a policy. However, the absence of appropriate policies leaves decision making in this area to individuals who may not be aware of the issues. Agencies who do not have appropriate infant feeding in emergency policies are often those who are involved in poorly targeted distribution of infant formula.
If the response to your telephone call or letter or your investigation of policies and resources reveals that the agency has not been acting appropriately in relation to infant feeding in emergencies or that they do not have an appropriate policy in this area and you decide not to donate to this aid agency because of this, then you may wish to send a letter informing the agency of your decision. Conversely, if the aid agency has been acting appropriately and this influences you to donate to this agency you may also wish to write to the agency informing them of this.
Sample letters 2 and 3 may assist you in writing to aid agencies about their practices.
What to look for
Sometimes aid agency newsletters, websites, press releases or newspaper articles will contain information that can alert you to the possibility that an aid agency is not acting appropriately. In descriptions of relief items you can look out for any mention of ‘baby kits’ or ‘hygiene packs’ in which powdered milk, infant formula and/or baby bottles might be included. You can also look for descriptions of women not being able to breastfeed because of stress or malnutrition as an indication that there may be a problem. Press releases that include infant formula or powdered milk in their publicised list of ‘priority relief items required’ are particularly problematic because they contribute to the problem of unsolicited donations of these commodities. Some examples from past emergencies include:
From a website, an example of untargeted distribution of infant formula: “[Our partner] has already distributed emergency supplies in various camps in Dili since the early days of unrest in the country. Displaced East Timorese families…in camps…have receive 17.5 kg of rice, two pieces of noodle per person, two bottles of oil per family, 10 pieces klien per family, 1 tent per family, two bars of soap/person, three boxes of milk per baby and firewood.”
From an aid agency newsletter, the distribution of large amounts of powdered milk, “Summary of relief items sent: food packets= 234 249, dry rations = 79 088 kg, packets of milk=23 505, bottles of water =12 617 litres”
From a press release, a plan to distribute infant formula in the short term, with the use of baby bottles and the repetition of the myth that stress adversely impacts milk supply, “The team is planning to return with… enough infant formula for 100 babies for 1 month (many mothers have been unable to breastfeed as a result of trauma and shock)… enough feeding bottles for 100 babies (2 for each baby).”
And, again from a press release, baby milk noted as a priority item required, “Continued delivery of urgent relief supplies is required... Priority relief items are emergency shelter items, food (canned goods, infant milk, children’s milk), potable water, paediatric medicines.”
From a newspaper article, an aid agency that provided infant formula to a baby because the mother was ‘malnourished’ instead of supplying food to the mother, “Born on September 23, Angi is the first known baby conceived and born after the December 26th tsunami… Angi, who is being bottle-fed because her mother's tsunami rations do not give her the strength to breastfeed, owes her robust health, at least in part, to a health clinic [a children's aid group]…set up in her village.”
If you see indications of inappropriate activity on behalf of aid agencies, take action. Contact the agency involved to ask about their activities (as described earlier), and if you suspect that the agency is not acting appropriately, report their actions to the IFE Core Group and UNICEF.
Make infant formula manufacturers accountable
Inappropriate action on behalf of infant formula manufacturers can also be revealed in press releases or media reports. For example, one company press release said: “Bright Beginnings Nutritionals, announced today that it is donating infant formula…to the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster...many babies and children in the areas affected by the tsunami will benefit from this type of donation.” Infant formula manufacturers send donations to emergency areas in an attempt to increase their market share in the region affected by the emergency and also to garner positive publicity for their actions as a public relations exercise. The latter motivation relies upon the public being unaware that their unsolicited donations are likely to harm babies.
Members of the public may influence manufacturers to desist in providing such donations by informing them that members of the public recognise their activities as exploitative and harmful. Reports of such donations should also be made to the IFE Core Group, UNICEF and the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN).
Keep governments accountable
Governments can be a direct source of unsolicited donations of infant formula and powdered milk. In addition, some governments have their own aid agencies that take part in emergency work or their armed forces may be involved in relief work during emergencies. They may also play a role in educating and funding the work of aid agencies through government agencies or departments. Therefore, it is important that governments, their aid agencies and military be aware of how to protect babies in emergencies.
In order to ensure that governments are acting appropriately, members of the public can write to their government representatives and ask whether the military or government agencies/departments are ever involved in emergency relief work and if so, what their policy is on infant and young child feeding in emergencies. Governments can also be asked what government agencies/departments are doing to ensure that non-government aid agencies based within that country are acting appropriately. Government agencies/departments can also be encouraged to indicate support for the Operational Guidance on Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies.
Sample letter 4 provides an example of the sort of letter that could be written to government representatives.
Alert other members of the general public
Opportunities exist to educate other members of the general public on how to protect babies in emergency situations. Emergencies can attract a lot of media attention and letters to the editor and talkback radio are channels through which information about appropriate infant feeding in emergencies can be transmitted. Service Clubs (eg Rotary) and religious organisations may like to take up the protection of infants in emergencies as a social justice issue. Please pass on the ENN website (www.ennonline.net/ife) to people whom you believe may be interested in protecting babies in emergencies.
