During the first week of August, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) joins the international community to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week. For 170 million children, chronic undernutrition leaves them vulnerable to disease and permanently impaired, their families impoverished and their communities less resilient.

The World Health Organization and UNICEF recommend that babies be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months. Anything less than 6 months results in increased risk for mortality in the first 2 years of life and amounts to 800,000 deaths annually.

Breastfeeding, a focus of USAID’s Multi-sectoral Nutrition Strategy, is an important part of the overall goal to end preventable child and maternal deaths.

Learn more

• Read Acting on the Call, USAID’s plan to end preventable child and maternal deaths.
• Find out what USAID is doing by reviewing the Multi-sectoral Nutrition Strategy (2014–2025).
• Join the conversation using the hashtags #MomandBaby and #WBW2015.

Photo credit: Jillian Emerson/Photoshare