The IBFAN Africa 7th Regional Conference was held in Maputo, Mozambique, from August 13-18, 2007, attended by some 127 participants and support staff. Congratulations are in order for Swaziland’s Youth who demonstrated their commitment when a member attended the Conference on a self funded
basis!

If you want more in depth coverage of the Conference, an electronic version (on CD or email) of the Summary Report is available on request from IBFAN Africa Regional Office’s Information Officer.

Objectives of the Conference

• To update participants on current issues/ developments on infant and young child nutrition.
• To discuss the new WHO/UNICEF BFHI training and assessment tools.
• To review progress made in BFHI and community support, and share best practices.
• To consolidate lessons from IBFAN Africa’s Capacity Project in five countries to increase visibility of IBFAN at the national level.
• To formulate strategies for scaling-up implementation of BFHI in the region through best practice.

Recommendations

• One integrated package to be created from existing training tools.
• Self-teaching modules to be developed by regional partners to overcome governments reluctance to release staff for training
• Training module and assessment indicators for community support to be developed by IBFAN Africa.
• WHO and UNICEF to support integration into pre-service training curriculum
• The BFHI training modules on the Code and HIV and infant feeding should not be optional
in African countries
• A coordinated regional response to scalingup of BFHI and other IYCF should be formulated.
• Regional partners to mobilize resources, including facilitators, for scaling-up of national
integrated packages
• Regional bodies to increase advocacy for implementation of the Code and resource
allocation to IYCF.
• IBFAN to lobby WHO for support with advocacy to governments on the need for Code
enactment.