By Kemo Cham
Sierra Leone’s Parliament has passed into law the code on breastmilk substitutes, in a major breakthrough for nutrition campaigners.
The “Breast Milk Substitutes Act 2020" was unanimously passed on Wednesday, July 21, following a debate on it by lawmakers in the well of parliament.
The new piece of legislation was designed to ensure safe and adequate nutrition for infants and young children by promoting breastfeeding through the regulation of the marketing of breast-milk substitutes, among others.
For about a decade now, campaigners under the Scaling Up Nutrition and Immunization (SUNI) platform have been advocating for the passage of the law which they say is crucial to curtail reliance on breastmilk substitutes which are popular yet they lack the crucial nutrients required for proper growth and development of babies.
Sierra Leone has a high rate of malnutrition, especially child malnutrition, which health authorities and campaigners say is a major contributing factor to the country’s twin health crises of infant and maternal mortality.
Some 63 percent of Sierra Leoneans are said to be food insecure, according to studies, with 30 percent of children thought to be stunted.
Under this new law, businesses dealing in breastmilk substitutes will be required to follow strict regulatory guidelines on their marketing, with the goal of preventing them from passing deceptive information through attractive package, designed to lure parents into relying exclusive on their products.
The overall goal is to ensure that parents feed their babies with breast milk, with particular focus on babies in the first six months of life.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends Exclusive Breastfeeding for babies in the first six months during which period experts say the child gets all the lifesaving nutrients needed for growth and development.
While official data show that there has been improvement in breastfeeding generally, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding remains low in Sierra Leone. Proliferation of breast milk substitutes has been partly blamed for this. The code is meant to not just ensure that products brought into the country meet international standards of safety, but it also seeks to regulate advertising with the goal of encouraging women to breastfeed their babies, rather than relying on breast milk substitutes.
SUNI is part of the global SUN Movement, which is a campaign that brings together governments and private sector players, including civil society, geared towards advocating for resources and enabling environment to help stop malnutrition and prevent its numerous health consequences.
In Sierra Leone the SUN Movement is headed by the government, through the office of the Vice President, while the local NGO FOCUS 1000 heads its civil society platform.
On Wednesday, following the passage of the new law, the Leader of Government Business in the House, Mathew Sahr Nyuma, singled out FOCUS 1000, among a host of top government officials, including the Speaker of the House, Dr Abass Bundu, for their contributions towards the passage of the “all important” bill.
FOCUS 1000 worked in collaboration with an array of organizations, with the support of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation through its Directorate of Food and Nutrition.
The campaign for the Code which started in 2012 also received the support and backing of the relevant UN bodies in the country, notably WHO and the UN children’s agency, Unicef.
With Wednesday’s development, Sierra Leone exited a dwindling group of countries in West Africa which do not have any legal measure on the regulation of breastmilk substitutes.
As of November 2020, these countries were Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania and Togo.
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