Nestlé in society Creating Shared Value and meeting our commitments 2015

Nestlé in society:
Creating Shared Value
Nutrition, health
and wellness
Rural development
Water
Environmental
sustainability
Human rights
and compliance
Our
people
G4-15, Customer health and safety G4-DMA, Marketing communications G4-DMA, G4-PR6, Compliance G4-DMA (Product responsibility)
The WHO Code
The International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk
Substitutes, also known as the WHO Code is a set of
recommendations for member states of the World Health
Organization. The WHO Code aims to contribute to the
provision of safe and adequate nutrition for infants through
the protection and promotion of breastfeeding, and by
ensuring the proper use of BMS, when these are
necessary, on the basis of adequate information and
thorough appropriate marketing and distribution. The
WHO Code was introduced in 1981 in response to the
concerns being raised about the marketing of BMS in
developing countries.
According to the WHO, only 37 out of 199 member
states had passed laws reflecting all the recommendations
made to them under the WHO Code by 2011. This results
in a highly complex regulatory environment for companies
and can lead to misunderstanding and differences in
interpretation about the application of the WHO Code.
We also actively encourage breastfeeding in our own facilities.
Our support for breastfeeding is reflected in our global Maternity
Protection Policy, published in 2015, which allows female
employees to take up to six months’ maternity leave (including
a minimum of 14 weeks’ paid leave). In addition to enabling
flexible working time and breastfeeding breaks, the policy also
promotes a conducive environment to breastfeed, which
includes a network of more than 277 breastfeeding sites in our
workplaces around the world. We will continue to equip all our
offices and sites that have more than 50 female employees with
breastfeeding rooms by 2018. When mothers are unable to
breastfeed as recommended, infant formula, the only suitable
breast-milk substitute (BMS) recognised by the WHO, is key to
providing infants with the essential nutrients they need to grow
and develop.
Nestlé is committed to marketing its BMS responsibly. We
invest substantial resources to ensure our marketing practices
comply with the aim and principles of the WHO’s International
Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (the WHO Code)
and subsequent relevant World Health Assembly (WHA)
resolutions. Our actions rely on five key pillars:
• Compliance;
• Good governance;
• Transparency;
• Constructive engagement; and
• Continuous improvement.
Compliance
We have publicly committed to market BMS responsibly and
to comply with the WHO Code as implemented by national
governments everywhere in the world. We voluntarily apply our
own stringent Nestlé Policy and Instructions for Implementation
of the WHO International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk
Substitutes (the Nestlé Policy), when it is stricter than the
national code, in 152 countries where children are considered
to be more vulnerable or at a higher risk of infant mortality and
malnutrition. Higher-risk countries are those where, for children
under five, the mortality rate is more than 1%, or the level of
acute malnutrition is higher than 2%. The application of the
Nestlé Policy is necessary as a number of these higher-risk
countries have not adopted legislation implementing all the
articles and resolutions under the WHO Code.
As a minimum in these higher-risk countries, Nestlé:
• States that breast milk is best for babies on infant product
labels, which are provided in the relevant local languages;
• Presents preparation instructions graphically and warns
mothers of the consequences of incorrect or inappropriate
use of infant formula; and
• Takes disciplinary measures against any Nestlé personnel
who deliberately violate the Nestlé Policy.
As a minimum in these higher-risk countries, Nestlé does not
allow the following:
• Advertising of infant and follow-on formula (for babies
under 12 months of age);
• Marketing of complementary foods for infants younger than
six months;
• Use of pictures of babies on infant formula packs;
• Supply of free infant formula to healthcare facilities for
use by healthy new-born babies, nor free samples to
mothers; and
• Giving of incentives to health workers for promoting
Nestlé products.
Nestlé in society – Creating Shared Value and meeting our commitments 2015 84