Successful Strategies to Control Marketing

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Title: Successful Strategies to Control Marketing
extracted text: Successful strategies to control marketing

Cp\ I 19SDA-RF-CH-1.17

Several countries faced with serious bottle feeding problems have
adopted stringent marketing regulations. These can serve as models for
other nations.

The WHO/UNICEF code format
India. Sri Lanka and Lesotho are among the countries which formed
national code-drafting committees even before the WHO/UNICEF
code was officially adopted in May 1981. These committees used either
the third or fourth draft of the code — (the version ultimately adopted) —
as a starting point and modified it slightly to fit the national context.
The modifications did not weaken these codes, despite industry’s
strong lobbying. Citizen groups can play a major role in supporting
government efforts to follow and even strengthen the WHO/UNICEF
code in the face of industry pressure.
Lesotho, in addition to developing a strong code based on the
international model, recently introduced legislation to provide:
|
© 90 days fully paid post-natal maternity leave for mothers
working in industrial, communal or government jobs;
O 60 minutes breast feeding allowances during work hours for the
first year;
® nursing facilities at or near work; and,
O special sick leave if a breast fed infant is ill.
The legislation makes discrimination against nursing mothers a punish
able offence.
Sri Lanka, too. has taken additional measures to halt the advance of
artificial feeding. In June 1981, the Sri Lankan government launched a
campaign to discourage consumption of artificial infant milk. One Sri
Lankan newspaper said the campaign would make Sri Lanka:
“the first Third World country to stand up against the
powerful combine of multinational companies marketing
infant milk foods.”
Under the guidance of four key Ministries — Health, Food, Plan
Implementation and Trade — Sri Lanka began a national advertising
campaign, to discourage mothers from purchasing infant milk foods,
pnd urging them to breast feed. The campaign is financed from the
Consumer Protection Fund of the Trade Ministry. Sri Lanka has already
adopted the WHO/UNICEF code as a national code, and this campaign
will provide extra impetus to efforts to improve infant health.

International Herald-Tribune,
London & Paris

11 Nov. 1980

All Infant Milk Ads
Banned in Sri Lanka
Reuters

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri
Lanka’s government, in an effort
to encourage breast feeding, has
banned all forms of advertising of
infant milk foods.
A Health Ministry spokesman
said that the ban, which took im
mediate effect, followed a recent
World Health Organization deci
sion to discourage the use of artifi
cial infant milk foods. He said the
ban did not prohibit the sale of in
fant milk foods provided the tin or
packet carried the slogan: “Breast
feeding is best.”

Prescription only sales
Recognising the limited need for artificial feeding, nations such as Papua
New Guinea and Guinea Bissau have combined curbs on promotion
with restrictions on both feeding bottles and powdered infant milk.
Mothers are required to get a prescription for bottles and milk from a
health worker who certifies their need for it and their ability to use it
safely. Stores which sell feeding bottles or baby milk to mothers without
prescriptions are subject to heavy fines.
In Papua New Guinea, this policy resulted in a dramatic decline in
artificial feeding: from 35% of infants in 1976 to 12% just 20 months
after the programme began. Moreover, those infants who were being
artificially fed were fed properly and safely.
Some doctors have noted, however, that making a product a
prescription drug can raise its status. People may view it as a desirable
medicine. Therefore, unless a country enforces prescription-only laws,
such a policy could be counterproductive.

Drawing from a Papua New Guinea
leaflet showing the increased dangers of
bottle feeding.

Demarketing infant formula
A number of countries have decided that commercial interests have no
place in the delicate arena of infant feeding. These nations, including
Algeria, Mozambique and Tanzania, have demarketed infant milks by
importing only the quantity of milk determined to be necessary, re
labelling it with government labels and distributing it to mothers who
need it via non-commercial channels such as hospital clinics. No
promotion of these milks is permitted.
Although in Algeria no statistics have been published which indicate
trends in breast feeding, the Director of Hygiene and Preventive Health
has confirmed that imports of infant milks stabilised in 1979. He expects
to see imports decline within a year or two, evidence that the govern
ment’s policy has begun to have the desired effect

Industrialised country codes
Far-sighted industrialised nations have recognised that breast feeding
must be protected from undue commercial pressure and have enacted
codes limiting baby food promotion.
Norway has proposed that the term “breast milk substitute” (implying
similarity to breast milk), be replaced by the term “milk mixture foi
infants”. Advertising to the public and distribution of company promo
tional materials through health facilities will be restricted. (One infant
milk firm objects to the proposed regulations because “they might
constitute an example that could be followed by the developing
countries”.)
Sweden has passed legislation stating that infants should receive
nothing but breast milk for the first five to six days of life. Sweden also
has a voluntary code of advertising in effect, and was one of the first
countries to implement such a measure.
In October 1981, the European Parliament of the Common Market
recommended strict enforcement of the WHO/UNICEF code through
out all European Economic Community (EEC) countries. The recom
mendation called for a binding directive to be developed by the EEC
Executive “to ensure uniform application of the code”. It also urged EEC
governments to:
“take the necessary steps to ensure that companies based
inside the community and exporting breast milk substitutes
to Third World countries, respect the terms of the code of
1
marketing in all theiractiuities in whatever part of the world."
A further suggestion was included that sanctions should be considered
against companies that fail to observe the code, such as “withdrawal of
community or national aid, grants or subsidies”, including access to the
vast EEC stocks of subsidised skimmed milk powder.
Through these and other successful measures, countries are taking
practical steps to control unwarranted promotion of artificial
feeding, and to help establish a social setting where breast feeding is
again viewed as normal and natural. Much still remains to be done,
however. The time is ripe to convert high levels of awareness,
visibility and resource availability into meaningful commitment and
action on behalf of mothers and infants around the world.

Published by the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN); Geneva, London, Minneapolis
and Penang.
Printed by Lithosphere Printing Cooperative, 203-205 Pentonville Road. London Nl, UK.

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