Abstract
Little information exists on how to garner political commitment to strengthen large-scale breastfeeding policies and programmes by targeting key decision makers. The present study aims to map and describe the influence of stakeholders involved in breastfeeding policy and programming and identify opportunities to strengthen the breastfeeding-friendly environment in Mexico. A total of nine key informants from seventeen stakeholder organisations were selected based on their in-depth knowledge of the breastfeeding environment in Mexico and were individually interviewed using Net-Map methodology. This participatory interview technique combines stakeholder mapping, social network analysis and influence mapping to identify relevant stakeholders. Participants identified a total of fifty-five stakeholders shaping breastfeeding programmes and policies through four domains of influence: commands (n 32 stakeholders), dissemination (n 40), funding (n 35) and technical assistance (n 37). The Federal Ministry of Health emerged as the most influential stakeholder of breastfeeding policy and programming decisions in Mexico among all domains of influence. The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit as well as the National Institute of Public Health were identified as additional key stakeholders providing funding and technical assistance to the Federal Ministry of Health, respectively. Engaging identified key stakeholders can generate a multisectoral commitment to breastfeeding and strengthen the breastfeeding-friendly environment in Mexico.
Highlights
Little information exists on how to garner political commitment to strengthen large-scale breastfeeding policies and programmes by targeting key decision makers
A recent landscape analysis on political commitment for programmes to protect, promote and support breastfeeding found that just one in forty-four high-level stakeholders representing a wide range of actors in the global policy community for breastfeeding (e.g. United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), WHO/Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the World Bank, donor agencies, academics, nongovernment organisations (NGO), civil society organisations and consultants) rated breastfeeding as a high-political priority[13]
There is little information on how to garner political commitment towards implementing appropriate large-scale breastfeeding policies and programmes by systematically targeting key stakeholders and decision makers. This study addresses this gap by reporting on a stakeholder mapping and network analysis conducted among stakeholders in Mexico following an assessment of the country’s breastfeeding-enabling environment in 2016(20)
Summary
Little information exists on how to garner political commitment to strengthen large-scale breastfeeding policies and programmes by targeting key decision makers. Key actions needed to bolster the supportive policy environment to promote breastfeeding include ensuring [1] increase funding of breastfeeding programmes, including maternity protection in the workplace, [2] compliance with the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, [3] access to breastfeeding counselling and training, [4] availability of community support programmes, [5] continuous monitoring, and [6] regulation of the potential impact of formula companies Despite these known evidence-informed actions that provide the minimum conditions needed to support breastfeeding women, many countries have not been able to effectively implement such key actions[1,4,7,11]. This study addresses this gap by reporting on a stakeholder mapping and network analysis conducted among stakeholders in Mexico following an assessment of the country’s breastfeeding-enabling environment in 2016(20)
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