The International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes was adopted at the thirty-fourth World Health Assembly in May 1981.

"The aim of this Code is to contribute to the provision of safe and adequate nutrition for infants, by the protection] and promotion of breastfeeding, and by ensuring the proper use of breast-milk substitutes, when these are necessary, on the basis of adequate information and through appropriate marketing and distribution." (Article 1 of the Code)

The Code calls upon governments to "take action to give effect to the principles and aim of this Code, as appropriate to their social and legislative framework including the adoption of national legislation, regulations or other suitable measures" (Article 11.1 of the Code).

At the 1998 World Health Assembly, the WHO Secretariat announced the creation of a new process to remove obstacles to the implementation of the International Code in member states. As part of this process WHO Director-General, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, held separate roundtable meetings in November 1998 with community-based NGOs and the International Association of Infant Food Manufacturers.

At the meetings, Dr Brundtland laid out key objectives for furthering practical implementation of the Code, and reiterated and reinforced the nature of WHO resolutions and the role assigned to government to interpret and monitor the Code. Dr. Brundtland said:

"And while on the topic of the Code and Assembly resolutions, I would like so say something very basic. Fundamental to the way WHO conducts its affairs are the recommendations it makes to its Member States. This, as I'm sure you know, is done most frequently through the resolutions adopted by the World Health Assembly that encourage a particular form of public health action. The Code, too, was adopted in the form of a recommendation.

The International Code and Assembly resolutions have the same force, the same value. In other words, neither the Code nor any resolution has a real impact and a lasting meaning unless countries implement them according to their national laws and practice.

Member States are sovereign; they may, if they choose, implement WHO's recommendations to the letter, they may actually go beyond these recommendations; or they may simply ignore them altogether. What we should all be striving for in this context is the translation of these recommendations, in all 191 Member States, into national policy and practice, based on WHO's principled, evidence-based public health stand".

Future WHO Steps

Future WHO initiatives indicated by the Director General are the continued use of her good offices to foster dialogue among advocates, food producers, and governments; and a WHO Consultation on Infant and Young Child Feeding, projected for the year 2000.

It is Nestlé's hope that the WHO process will both help clarify WHO's recommendations on such issues as the scope of the Code and the definition of a breast-milk substitute, and will lead to practical measures for monitoring compliance by all manufacturers at the national government level, as called for by Code Article 11.2:

Article 11.2: Monitoring the application of this Code lies with governments acting individually, and collectively through the World Health Organisation as provided in paragraphs 6 and 7 of this article.