Message by Pehin Datu Lailaraja Major General
(Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Haji Awang Halbi bin Haji Mohd Yussof, Acting Minister
of Health Brunei Darussalam, on the occasion of the World Breastfeeding Week
2016
GIVING
all children the best foundation in life begins with breastfeeding – one of the
simplest, smartest and most cost-effective actions proven to generate healthier
children, stronger families and sustainable growth.
World
Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is celebrated every August 1 to 7 to highlight the critical
importance of promoting the value of breastfeeding as the biological and social
norm for infant and young child feeding.
In Brunei
Darussalam, WBW has successfully been highlighted since 1999. This year, once
again, the Ministry of Health (MoH) will lead the nation in celebrating WBW by
carrying out various activities to promote, protect and support breastfeeding.
The theme
for this year is ‘Breastfeeding – A Key to Sustainable Development’. In 2015,
the world’s leaders identified and agreed upon 17 Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) aimed at ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity.
We all have a part to play in achieving these goals by 2030.
The WBW
2016 theme is about how breastfeeding is a key element in getting us to think
about how to value our wellbeing from the start of life, how to respect each
other and care for the world we share, leading towards achieving sustainable
development through the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding
can be linked to each of the SDGs along five broad thematic areas:
nutrition/food security; health, well-being and survival; environment and
climate change; work productivity, empowerment, social protection; and
sustainable partnerships and rule of law.
The
objectives of the WBW 2016 are: To inform people about the new SDGs and how
they relate to breastfeeding and Infant and Young Child Feeding; to firmly
anchor breastfeeding as a key component of sustainable development; to
galvanise a variety of actions at all levels on breastfeeding in the new era of
the SDGs; and to engage and collaborate with a wider range of actors around
promotion, protection and support of breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding
is important to sustain development. New evidence confirms that optimal
breastfeeding (exclusive breastfeeding from birth to six months and continuous
breastfeeding up to two years) could save 823,000 child lives and add USD$300
billion to the global economy annually.
Breastfeeding
lays the foundation for good health for all children both in the short and long
term, and also benefits mothers. 20,000 deaths due to breast cancer globally
could be averted if mothers breastfeed optimally.
However,
global breastfeeding rates have remained stagnant for the past two decades.
Less than 40 per cent of infants under six months of age are exclusively
breastfed.
This
global scenario is also happening in Brunei Darussalam where exclusive
breastfeeding rate was as low as 12 per cent in 2000 and has increased to 27
per cent in 2010. This rate is still low compared to the global target of 50
per cent by the year 2025.
Brunei
Darussalam needs to continue and strengthen its initiatives and multisectoral
strategies towards achieving higher exclusive breastfeeding rates in the
nation.
Breastfeeding
mothers face many barriers to breastfeeding. They may receive inaccurate
information from health providers and have no access to skilled breastfeeding
counseling. It is also important for them to have support from their husbands,
families and the community in order to sustain breastfeeding.
Acquiring
the correct knowledge, skills and compe-tency in breastfeeding and related
issues among relevant health care providers is important to this ministry.
In-house breastfeeding management training programme to improve knowledge,
confidence, counselling and practical skills have been continuously conducted
so that mothers with breastfeeding difficulties can be supported hands-on.
Brunei
Darussalam aspires to be a nation in which breastfeeding is protected,
promoted, supported and valued by the whole of society.
WBW 2016
marks a new start for us to work together and show how we can achieve
sustainable development through the protection, promotion and support of
breastfeeding.
This is
particularly pertinent for Brunei Darussalam and is especially well-aligned
with two out of three of the MoH’s three strategic priorities for the next five
years, that is, to inculcate that ‘health is everyone’s business as well as to
prevent and control of non-communicable diseases
NCDs
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