1. Dr Vandana Prasad National Convenor PHRN
World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) Perspectives in Challenges and Future Actions
INDIA
Dr Vandana Prasad
National Convenor
PHRN

2. What Has Changed Since 2005 Assessment
While initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth and initiation of complementary feeding between 6-9 months seem to have improved from NFHS2 ( ),
Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months has fallen from 46.9% to 46.3%
Median duration of breastfeeding from 25.4 months to 24.4 months
Bottle feeding has increased from 13.7% to 16.4%.

3. Contd.
Opportunities lost on policy, programmes, BFHI, implementation IMS Act, HIV and BF (minus points given)
Definite gains in Maternity Protection
Score increased by 1 point….(68 to 69)

4. List Of Partners For The Assessment Process
NATIONAL CORE GROUP: JP Dadhich, Radha Holla, Arun Gupta (BPNI), Vandana Prasad, Priya Soibam (PHRN), Ajay Gaur (Medical College, Gwalior), Anurag Singh (Medical College, Jodhpur)
NATIONAL PARTNERS
IBFAN
BPNI
PHRN
IAP
NNF
FOGSI
Medical Colleges
Mobile Crèches
National Health Systems Resource Centre

5. Positive Experiences During The Process
Another tactic to reinforce long standing campaign issues; a new peg
Growth in understanding and analysis
Satisfaction of having all information pertaining to BF in one place and updated for easy reference and advocacy
New partnerships explored through working together for a specific output
Greater outreach achieved
Offered a new potential space for intervention and advocacy (Ministry of Panchayati Raj)

6. Challenges Faced During The Process
Lack of priority from participating agencies and institutions
Lack of data on issues specific to breastfeeding and support services
Lack of specificity in the tool; subjective, descriptive and yet quantitative!
Inflexibility of tool, specially for follow up; indicators are static and not able to show progress or lack of it compared to its own previous (like ‘new action’ for Code)
Some issues poorly covered (creches have only 1 point!)

7. Challenges Faced During The Process
lack of clarity on the indicators themselves – some points too general – support to mothers and community outreach
net scores may be the same even though major fluctuations may have occurred in individual indicators
Different participants had different perceptions on each indicator
If action is not visible it is a challenge to retain interest in the process of studying, so it was a challenge to demonstrate some movement since 2005.
Could not capitalise on the potential for intervening through Panchayati Raj Min because of bureaucratic indolence

8. Methods Used To Tackle The Challenges
Regularity of contact with partners; more effective coordination
First time that the coordination was shared with another interested agency (PHRN)
Sub groups formed on each indicator though some did not come through
Larger meeting of partners and policy makers to create consensus on scoring and recommendations through a process of negotiation
Creative use of the tool - deduction of points, explanatory notes and presentations
Constant reference to action, past present and potential

9. Suggestions For Improving The Process
Need to link more with action
Need to modify the tool to accommodate issues like creches
Need to modify the tool to allow for qualitative assessments and descriptive detail in some manner
Perhaps need a different follow up tool that can look at greater details in each subsequent round
Process indicators (for WBTi process) can also be built in for each country

10. Thank You