Thursday, 16 August 2012

WHA Resolution Tackles Conflicts of Interest


The 65th World Health Assembly (WHA) took place in Geneva in May and discussed an Implementation plan on infant and young child feeding. 

Proposed by Canada, UK, Swaziland and Mexico, the WHA adopted a new resolution WHA 65.6 on Maternal, infant and young child nutrition 

It calls on governments to strengthen controls on the marketing of breastmilk substitutes and to establish “adequate mechanisms” to deal with conflicts of interest. 

The Resolution will be especially important in relation to the new partnerships and “multi-stakeholder” arrangements that are springing up to tackle poor nutrition - many of which are pushing fortified processed baby foods and fuelling the multi-billion “business of malnutrition”.

WHA 65.6 also mandates WHO "to provide clarification and guidance on the inappropriate promotion of foods for infants and young children".

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