World Breastfeeding Week 2012: Understanding the Past, Planning the Future – Celebrating 10 years of WHO/UNICEF’s Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding

The 10th anniversary of the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding provides an opportunity to assess the progress towards implementation by WHO Member States in Latin America and the Caribbean. It also provides an opportunity to examine countries’ breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices. This policy brief, which analyzes effects of the policies and programs on breastfeeding practices, shows that implementation of the Global Strategy is associated with positive trends in exclusive breastfeeding over the past 10 to 20 years. The results are clear: investing in protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding though implementation of the Global Strategy may lead to increases in exclusive breastfeeding!