CLOSED FOR COMMENTS
Background
The WHO Guidance on Ending the Inappropriate Promotion of Foods for Infants and Young Children recommends that “companies that market foods for infants and young children should not … sponsor meetings of health professionals and scientific meetings and that health workers, health systems, and health professional associations should not allow [such sponsorship].” In 2016, the World Health Assembly called upon health care professionals to implement this guidance.
In response to queries received from various associations regarding what does or does not count as corporate sponsorship of health professional and scientific meetings (sponsorship), WHO has drafted a statement clarification. Following a period of public consultation, WHO intends to publish a statement of clarification.
The purpose of this online consultation is to gather relevant information from affected stakeholders and civil society to ensure the clarification is fit-for-purpose, acceptable and feasible, and to identify potential unintended consequences of this clarification for the implementation of WHO Guidance on Ending the Inappropriate Promotion of Foods for Infants and Young Children welcomed by the welcomed by the 69th World Health Assembly.
WHO is now inviting public comment on a draft Clarification on Sponsorship of Health Professional and Scientific Meetings by Companies that Market Foods for Infants and Young Children via an online public consultation.
The online public consultation will be open from 23th September 2022 until 17th October 2022. Submit your comments by 11h59m on 17th October 2022.
Instructions for submitting comments
Read the draft content here. Submit comments by completing this form.
General information about the consultation
WHO especially invites comments about:
- Clarity and relevance
- Relevant issues not addressed or that require further explanation
- Setting-specific or contextual issues that should be considered or addressed
- Implications for implementation or feasibility
Once the online public consultation is complete, WHO will review the submissions and, after due consideration of issues raised, prepare a final draft of the document for clearance and publication on the WHO website.
By participating in the Public Hearing concerning the Sponsorship of Health Professional and Scientific Meetings by Companies that Market Foods for Infants and Young Children, each respondent agrees to grant WHO the right to use and distribute any comments that are provided by the responder and use the aforementioned comments for the purpose of developing, revising and finalizing the Clarification on Sponsorship of Health Professional and Scientific Meetings by Companies that Market Food for Infants and Young Children.
WHO shall not have any obligation to provide the responder or any third party with any compensation in connection with its exercise of the aforementioned rights.
The public consultation ends on 17th October 2022, 23:59 (CEST)
Contact
Please direct questions regarding the consultation to NFS@who.int with the subject “Sponsorship Query”.