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This document describes the roll out of Baby Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI) in Kenya, based on program implementation experiences of USAID’s MCSP and Maternal and Child Integrated Program (MCHIP). The Kenya country experience provides insight on one way a country decided to develop and sustain a supportive environment for breastfeeding at the community level, in tandem with facility-based efforts to protect, promote and support breastfeeding (i.e. ANC and PNC, and considerations for linking to BFHI).
The goals of BFCI in Kenya were:
- To promote, protect, and support breastfeeding at the community level through mother to mother and community support groups, which engage mothers, fathers, grandmothers and community leaders
- To strengthen maternal nutrition practices for pregnant and lactating women, complementary feeding for children 6- 23 months of age, and to provide care and support for adolescent mothers on infant and young child feeding (IYCF).
- To provide a multisectoral platform for integration of key activities from other sectors (i.e. early childhood development; agriculture; water, sanitation, and hygiene). In Kenya, other government ministries aside from Ministry of Health, including Ministry of Education and Ministry of Agriculture played a critical role in the national BFCI program.