Countries at the seventy-eighth World Health Assembly have agreed on two resolutions to extend the comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant and child nutrition to 2030 and to regulate the digital marketing of breast-milk substitutes .
The extended comprehensive implementation plan, first adopted at the Sixty-Fifth World Health Assembly in 2012, builds on progress made to-date while acknowledging shortfalls and adopting new process indicators to monitor progress on areas like dietary diversity and breastfeeding. In addition, more ambitious goals were set for targets that have nearly been achieved, such as exclusive breastfeeding rates and the proportion of children who are overweight.
The 2030 targets are:
- 40% reduction in the number of children under 5 years of age who are stunted, compared to the 2012 baseline;
- 50% reduction in anaemia in women of reproductive age, compared to the 2012 baseline;
- 30% reduction in low birth weight, compared to the 2012 baseline;
- reduce and maintain overweight in children under 5 years of age to less than 5%;
- increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months up to at least 60%; and
- reduce and maintain wasting in children under 5 years of age to less than 5%.
Rather than simply extending the targets, this resolution calls for the scaled-up integration of essential nutrition action across all sectors along with capacity-building of health-care workers and fiscal policies such as the taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages . In addition, the new 2030 deadline aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals agenda while allowing for countries to respond to emerging threats such as climate change, economic crises, rising food prices and internal displacement, all of which impact nutrition.
"Globally in 2024, an estimated 148 million children under 5 experienced stunting, 45 million were estimated to be wasted, and 37 million children were overweight or living with obesity," said the representative of Ireland, which proposed the resolution together with Ethiopia. "That is almost 240 million children who are being denied the chance to thrive and meet their full potential."
Complementing this resolution, countries also agreed to extend the provisions of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (the Code) aimed at combatting the digital marketing of formula milk and baby foods. The Code – a landmark public health agreement passed at the World Health Assembly in 1981 – aims to protect caregivers and new mothers from aggressive marketing practices by the baby food industry, which often makes misleading claims or promotes unhealthy baby foods . In recent years, new digital marketing tactics have proliferated, particularly through the use of influencers and social media channels.
The 2025 resolution calls for more robust efforts to develop, strengthen and coordinate the regulation of digital marketing to protect infant and child health during the first 1000 days of life. It also calls on countries to invest in effective systems for monitoring and enforcement.
"Optimal breastfeeding provides critical nutrition and limits free sugar exposure, making it a powerful [and] cost-effective intervention to reduce the lifelong risk of NCDs," noted the representative of FDI World Dental Federation, a non-State actor in official relations with WHO. "We applaud the new operational targets, especially early breastfeeding initiation, access to counselling on infant and young child feeding, and tracking sugary drink consumption in children."
Malnutrition in every form presents a significant threat to human health, particularly for infants, young children and adolescents – all stages of life at which nutrition can have a lifelong impact. Together these agreements send a strong message that maternal, infant and young child nutrition must be incorporated into national health policies and plans as a top priority, and that the digital marketing of breast-milk substitutes must be regulated, monitored and enforced.
Children are the foundation of our shared future, and these resolutions reflect a commitment to giving every child the best possible chance of realizing their full potential.
