GENEVA/NEW YORK (GNP): UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell and World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus have issued a joint call for countries to strengthen breastfeeding support and health systems, warning that too many mothers and families worldwide still lack access to the services needed to enable and sustain breastfeeding.
The two leaders described breastfeeding as one of the most effective and low-cost ways to protect a child’s health, noting that it delivers essential nutrition, strengthens immunity, helps guard against serious illness, and supports early cognitive development, while also lowering mothers’ long-term risk of conditions such as breast and ovarian cancers and type 2 diabetes.
The statement points to encouraging global progress on this front. Exclusive breastfeeding rates during a child’s first six months have climbed from around 37 per cent in 2012 to more than 47 per cent today, while breastfeeding continued up to two years of age has risen from 38 per cent to 50 per cent over just the past five years.
UNICEF and WHO say these improvements reflect the impact of sustained investment in maternal and family support policies, though they caution that progress remains far from even across countries, with many still falling short of global targets due to limited service coverage, inconsistent policy enforcement, and gaps in care quality, particularly in low-income, fragile, and humanitarian settings.
Both organizations point to a clear set of cost-effective interventions capable of closing that gap, including skilled breastfeeding support integrated into health systems, community-based counselling, stronger maternity protection policies, and safeguards against the aggressive marketing of commercial infant formula.
The projected returns from scaling up these measures are substantial: UNICEF and WHO estimate that expanded breastfeeding support could prevent close to 400,000 child deaths and around 140,000 maternal deaths annually, while every dollar invested in breastfeeding promotion is estimated to generate roughly 59 dollars in economic returns through reduced health-care costs, improved cognitive outcomes, higher educational attainment, and greater lifetime earnings.
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Marking World Breastfeeding Week under the theme “Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthen What Works,” the two agencies are calling on governments to take six specific steps: strengthening health systems to deliver quality breastfeeding support for mothers and newborns, expanding community-based counselling and peer support programmes, fully implementing and enforcing the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, investing in paid maternity leave and supportive workplace policies, integrating breastfeeding interventions across antenatal, perinatal, and postnatal care, and sustaining breastfeeding support even within humanitarian and fragile settings.
In closing their statement, Russell and Tedros emphasized that investing in these proven solutions can give every child the best possible start in life while ensuring mothers receive the care and services they need throughout the breastfeeding period.
