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.

As part of the efforts to protect breastfeeding and save lives, UNICEF, WHO, Alive & Thrive, HKI and IBFAN, in collaboration with the West African Health Organization (WAHO), have developed a regional model law for regulating the marketing of breastmilk substitutes, foods for infants and youn

Updated February 2022!

This quick guide summarizes the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (The Code) and relevant resolutions of the World Health Assembly that help protect breastfeeding around the globe.

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

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.