KEPSA Foundation in partnership with the Ministry of Health and other partners joins the rest of the world in commemorating this year’s World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) from 1^st to 7^th August 2023 with an aim to create awareness and garner support for the protection, promotion and support for breastfeeding.

This year’s theme, ‘Enabling Breastfeeding: Making a Difference for Working Parents’ is aligned with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10 which focus on creating awareness on the impact of paid leave, workplace support and emerging parenting norms on breastfeeding through the lens of parents themselves. It further calls upon us to reflect on the need to strengthen the investments to support breastfeeding among working parents by showcasing the impact of paid leave, emerging parenting issues and workplace support.

KEPSA Foundation Executive Director, Ms. Gloria Ndekei on 1^st and 3^rd August 2023 participated in a webinar and NTV Show at Mabati Rolling Mills (MRM) respectively. Ms. Caroline Kawira further represented the Foundation in the National Launch of the 2023 WBW held on 4^th August 2023 at the Panafric Hotel Nairobi. These efforts aimed at showcasing the Foundation’s role of complementing the efforts of government through the Better Business Practices for Children (BBPC) initiative among the private sector, an initiative undertaken in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and UNICEF towards championing the good practices that promote, support and protect breastfeeding.

Ms. Ndekei provided an overview of the BBPC initiative from when it was conceived in 2010 where 27 companies committed to embrace and implement the components of BBPC with an aim of Improving Maternal and Infant nutrition through workplace support for breastfeeding female employees. KEPSA was instrumental in pushing for the enactment of the Breast Milk Substitutes (BMS) Regulations and Control Act, 2012, and the Health Act, 2017 mandating employers to establish lactation stations and offer breaks for breastfeeding.

Ms. Ndekei further highlighted that through the initiative, a model lactation room was established at KEPSA that serves as a learning Centre, over 1000 private sector companies were sensitized on BBPC and champions who are captains of the industry stepped up to push the agenda within the private sector. As a result of this, over 60 private sector companies established lactation stations as a result of advocacy with others in various stages of implementation.

During the 2023 WBW launch, Dr. Simon Kibias, representing the Principal Secretary, State Department for Public Health & Professional Standards Ms. Mary Muthoni, in his keynote address began by appreciating KEPSA and other organizations that have actively spearheaded the incorporation of women's rights in their business practices. He stated that immediate change needs to happen towards social stigma and unfavourable working environments for the holistic well-being of both mothers and children. Further, he urged employers to commit to integrating better business practices for working parents to amply ease their 6-month breastfeeding commitment. With the ministry being at the forefront in sensitization on the importance of breastfeeding, he encouraged individual championing of women's and children's rights for a sustainable social and economic environment for growth.

Country UNICEF Representative, Ms. Shaheen Nilofer, acknowledged the need for policy reviews in light of the 6-month breastfeeding initiative. She explained that breastfeeding not only nourishes both mother and child but also strengthens their family relationship and, in this regard, emphasized the need for revision of the maternity and paternity leave days to 6 months and 1 monthly respectively. She further expressed her willingness to partner with the Ministry of Health, KEPSA, WHO and other partners in order to champion for better business practices for women and children.

As part of showcasing best practices realized from the BBPC initiative, the Foundation spotlighted Isuzu East Africa, MRM, and Senaca East Africa as among the organizations that are doing well on this front.

Senaca EA Managing Director, Ms Annette Kimitei, while sharing the practices from the private security sector said that the working mothers in the sector face numerous difficulties from the unfavorable working conditions of the sector. This realization motivated Senaca EA to do things differently and became the first security company to set up a lactation station among other initiatives.  Ms. Kimitei mentioned that the company is gradually increasing recruitment of women from 5% to a target of 30%, ensures that the mothers attend the prenatal and postnatal visits, has designed a maternity wear for uniformed security women, allows flexi hours and breaks, and extends sensitization of the legal and moral obligation among its partners.

The MRM Human Resources Manager Ms. Catherine Njuguna, and Breastfeeding champion Ms. Steiner Daniel further shared how MRM has taken up the BBPC interventions of lactation station, flexi hours and breastfeeding breaks and the impact thereof on the productivity of employees and health of the babies.

Ms. Margaret Ndung’u, HR Manager Isuzu EA, highlighted actions that Isuzu has taken to promote a conducive working environment for working mothers such as; adherence to policies within the Employment Act and BBPC initiative through the creation of lactation rooms, implementation of flexible working hours, medical policies that cater for care in case of maternal complications, pre and post-natal counselling services, stipends to new parents and offering of additional leave days. She highlighted that these actions led to an attrition rate reduction to 2.1% from 8% and a productivity growth rate from 34 million to 58 million per employee. In her conclusion, she stated that care for mothers is care to the earth and encouraged employers to embrace the new regime for accelerated growth.

Ms. Jane Achieng’, a KEPSA Beneficiary, whilst giving her testimonial, began by appreciating and recognizing the efforts that KEPSA Foundation has taken in sensitizing women on the importance of breastfeeding. Citing her son as an example, she explained the health benefits of consistent and exclusive breastfeeding and urged women to devotedly help their children by breastfeeding and educating fellow women on the benefits of breastmilk.

According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, 60% of children under 6 months of age are exclusively breastfed against the global target of 70% by 2030. This calls for concerted efforts to accelerate and scale up initiatives that protect, promote and support breastfeeding. The 2023 World Breastfeeding Week provides an opportunity for creating awareness of the importance of breastfeeding and also to accelerate compliance with articles 71 and 72 of the Health Act, 2017 in regards to supporting breastfeeding at the workplace.

The WBW 2023 launch culminated with a session for signing up the statement of commitment to;

1. Uphold to at least 3 months of fully paid Maternity leave and two weeks of fully paid paternity leave.
2. Establish and/or advocate for the establishment of furnished and functional lactation rooms.
3. Provide 60 minutes flexi hours for breastfeeding mothers in addition to the regular break within the 8 hours working day.
4. Support full implementation of BMS Act 2012 at workplace.
5. Uphold to have the female employees take their paid annual leave in addition to the maternity leave