Breastfeeding is one of the best buys in global health to improve social, health, and economic development outcomes. Globally, improving breastfeeding practices could save more than 820,000 lives annually—87 percent of them infants under six months of age.

A billion dollars and two thousand lives, every day. This impactful study, which is the foundation for Alive and Thrive’s online tool, examines the human and economic costs of not breastfeeding.

The Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly (BBF) initiative provides a guide for countries to assess the enabling environment for breastfeeding policies, programs and scale-up.

Mothers in the rural Boucle de Mouhoun Region of Burkina Faso had low levels of knowledge of IYCF and practices, according to this study: 60% of children had the minimum meal frequency, while only 18% benefited from the minimum dietary diversity and 13% received minimum acceptable diet.