Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

I am the National Coordinator of the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative Australia. This submission is on behalf of the WBTiAUS and colleagues.

WBTi Australia is a coalition of individuals and organisations established in September 2017. Its primary aim is to change the way breastfeeding is protected, promoted and supported in Australia by:

• assessing the status of, and benchmarking the progress in implementation of, the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding in Australia using the standardised tool of the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi)
• engaging with relevant stakeholders in the process of assessment
• communicating the results of the assessment to key decision-makers and stakeholders

WBTiAUS has prepared two country assessments published in 2018 and 2023, and its assessment score is the international benchmark for the 2019 Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy. 

Response to questions

Do you agree with the guiding principles indicated above?

Yes

Should the objectives include mainstreaming Indigenous Peoples food and knowledge systems, and lessons learned from them, for the benefit of all, or solely for the benefit of Indigenous Peoples as rights holders?

No comment

What are the challenges related to Free, Prior and Informed Consent and Access and Benefit Sharing when widely promoting and/or mainstreaming Indigenous Peoples food and knowledge systems?

The use of Indigenous Peoples food and knowledges requires free, prior and informed consent (as per the (World Bank, 2016)) and fair and equitable benefit sharing with First Nations peoples (as per the Convention on Biological Diversity and its associated Nagoya Protocol).

For First Nations peoples to profit from their extensive knowledge of Country, food, and medicine, they first need adequate protection. We recommend putting in place legislative requirements such as the Nagoya Protocol that will protect Indigenous knowledges and enable communities to leverage this knowledge.

How can the report ensure the inclusion of marginalized groups, sustainability, and protection against commercialization risks for Indigenous Peoples' food and knowledge systems?

A recent submission to the Australian Parliamentary inquiry into economic self-determination and opportunities for First National Australians considered the issue of protecting indigenous intellectual property rights regarding traditional foods, found here - https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=e9f66bda-d19f-4319-865e- 746f590dc860&subId=757029

This did not consider the issues regarding patents over human milk components by the commercial milk formula industry, which marginalizes breastfeeding women even while human milk products generate large profits and surpluses for market enterprises.

However, it pointed to traditional food and medicine practices as a source of opportunity as well as food security for indigenous communities and called for suitable infrastructure investments and intellectual property law reforms to protecting traditional knowledge in each State and Territory’s biodiscovery legislation and support development of a native foods and medicines industry.

Comparable issues of basic infrastructure provision and recognition of the intrinsic value of women’s traditional knowledge on infant and young child feeding could also be considered, alongside investments in birthing and breastfeeding support systems with high rates of return to health systems and communities.

How should oral knowledge and traditions be documented and referenced in the development of the report?

Oral knowledge and traditions should be documented in ways which respect and do not devalue or minimize indigenous knowledge, and protect indigenous knowledge from being appropriated or controlled by outsiders such as through inappropriate exploitation of copyright or patents (29).

Suitable documentation and referencing systems have been developed and recommended, which we support https://subjectguides.nscc.ca/apa-7-ed/CitingTraditionalKnowledge . Sensitivities around sharing indigenous knowledge must also be recognised and the wishes of the indigenous owners heeded.

What dimensions linked to Indigenous Peoples’ agency, e.g., in governance issues, could be addressed?

see Gall et al above.

Are there important/relevant policy papers and instruments missing from the foundational documents list?

no comment

Could you please indicate relevant references that should be taken into account?

See above

What best practices, ethical standards, and strategies for addressing climate change should be highlighted in the report?

It can be argued that investments in enabling breastfeeding are carbon offsets. A recent paper in the Bulletin of the WHO argued for better systems of measurement of productivity to include non-market production including breastfeeding and breastmilk (30).

As commercial milk formula has adverse environmental impacts, reduces adaptability and resilience and generates 10-14 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions for every kilogram of powder (31) (9) (11) (10), strategies for reparations should include funding for measures to increase breastfeeding as investment in carbon offsets (30).

Climate change presents an opportunity for redress and empowerment of Indigenous communities to lead climate action planning based on their intimate traditional and historical knowledges of Country. Best-practice principles to facilitate this are outlined in the Climate Change and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Discussion paper, these include:

1. Building adaptive capacity of communities by restoring basic rights to adequate housing and access to Country and its resources;
2. Place-based adaptation and mitigation planning given the diversity of Indigenous cultures, as well as the diversity of climate impact.
3. Establishing equitable power relationships and co-governance arrangements at multiple levels to provide Indigenous communities more certainty and control in protecting Country;
4. Centering and leveraging the valuable biocultural knowledge of Indigenous people with appropriate intellectual and cultural property protection;
5. Building respectful, trusting partnerships to share and weave together Indigenous and Western knowledge systems to inform innovative adaptation and mitigation;
6. Providing sustainable resourcing and program flexibility to support innovation and long-term monitoring and evaluation; and
7. Establishing geographic and intersectoral networks for collaboration, sharing and learning about experiences to build sustainable effective climate action strategies.

Which best practices or strategies to promote cross-cultural understanding should be highlighted in the report?

Australia has been developing a number of strategies to remedy the harms to indigenous breastfeeding. This includes the Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy, as well as specific programs relevant to the needs of indigenous women.

Are the previous legal documents such as Prior and Informed Consent, enough in light of this evolution of thinking about Indigenous People’s knowledge, or do they need to be revised?

No comment

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