Not breastfeeding has significant health and economic impacts. The Cost of Not Breastfeeding Tool is an evidence-based modeling tool that uses open-access data to estimate the health and economic costs of not protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding.

This brief by Nutrition International and Alive & Thrive provides key findings from the updated and expanded Cost of Not Breastfeeding tool, including summaries of the costs by region and country case studies for China,

Alive & Thrive's implementation research spans its program areas, seeking to answer "how" to implement effective interventions and policies. Active studies are detailed in the attached documents.

Not breastfeeding leads to more than half a million child deaths annually and costs the world economy up to US$1 billion a day.