SCN News No 34 - UNSCN

38 FEATURES
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parties. The Strategy refers specifically to infant and young child feeding in emergencies and calls for feeding
support for infants and young children in exceptionally difficult circumstances and the development of the
knowledge and skills base of health workers working with carers and children in such situations (paras. 23,
31 and 34). The International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent relevant World
Health Assembly (WHA) resolutions (collectively known as the Code) (WHO 1981) are embedded in the Ops
Guidance.
Challenges to field implementation
The context of emergencies is critical to implementation. While the message
may seem simple – breast is best, much depends on the perceptions and
understanding of breastfeeding in the emergency setting, existing policies
and their implementation by key actors, coupled with the levels of
knowledge and practical skills among those actors. Recent emergencies
have covered many contexts and consequently feeding practices – from the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Venezuela where breastfeeding
is considered the norm, to Hurricane Katrina in the US, where breastfeeding
is considered the last resort (see quote), to contexts where a considerable
proportion of mothers may have never breastfed, such as Lebanon.
Still weak from the birth,
she was forced to breastfeed
her 21-month-old child.
"I had to, I couldn't give
him anything else.“
Mark Coultan,
The Age, New Orleans,
September 6, 2005
We also have many players in an emergency response that can influence infant and young child feeding and
outcomes. Some of them are obvious, like health and nutrition staff directly involved with mothers and babies
on the ground, and some of them less so, like the military, whose humanitarian related operations, often in
the very early days of an emergency response, can have a significant bearing on infant feeding in
emergencies.
Added dimension of IFE Core Group
The last five to six years has seen great policy and guidance development to support infant and young child
feeding, including on HIV and infant feeding and complementary feeding. We need the frameworks and
global strategies to guide our thinking, but the ‘devil is in the detail’, and it is elucidating this practical detail for
emergencies that the IFE Core Group is really all about. Central to this is the realisation that IFE has to be
addressed at all levels to make a difference. The Core Group addresses policy development and
implementation as well as capacity building in programme management and in practical knowledge and skills
that ultimately translate into implementation of interventions that support appropriate infant feeding practices.
Support of breastfeeding is the cornerstone of the work of the IFE Core Group. However we are equally
concerned with the protection and support of both breastfed and non-breastfed infants and young children as
well as with complementary feeding in emergencies.
How the IFE Core Group works
Each of the member agencies is committed to technically and financially supporting the work of the IFE Core
Group. Initially informally coordinated, since 2004 the ENN took on a more formal coordination role. The work
of the Core Group actually reflects a much wider network of collaborators who have contributed over the
years. This has ranged from technical contributors who have written chapters to field teams that have
reviewed content or contributed case material to use. Until 2007, the group has survived on a shoestring and
insecure budget, relying on contributions of members. Currently the majority of the activities of the IFE Core
Group for 2007 is funded by the UNICEF-led Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Nutrition Cluster
Working Group, with continued support from IFE Core Group members and the Office of US Foreign Disaster
Assistance (USAID/OFDA) support to ENN.
The IFE Core Group’s work in policy guidance is embodied in the Infant and Young Child Feeding in
Emergencies – Operational Guidance for Emergency Relief Staff and Policy-Makers (Ops Guidance) (IFE
Core Group 2007), and in capacity building in the form of two training
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