Global Investment Case for Improved Breastfeeding
A 2026 update to the global investment case for breastfeeding, with a companion advocacy brief on the cost of inaction and the returns from scaling up proven interventions.
Highlights
Breastfeeding remains one of the most effective ways to protect child survival and development, yet only 47 per cent of infants under six months are exclusively breastfed worldwide. This global investment case, developed by Nutrition International with the World Health Organization and UNICEF for the Global Breastfeeding Collective, updates the Collective's 2017 investment case with new health, human capital and economic evidence to support scaled-up investment in breastfeeding protection, support and promotion.
The analysis puts the annual cost of not breastfeeding at $339 billion, or 0.32 per cent of global gross national income, driven by 383,000 avoidable child deaths, 138,000 avoidable maternal deaths, 58 million lost years of education and 168 million unrealized IQ points each year. Left unaddressed, these losses are projected to exceed $3 trillion over the next decade.
The report models three intervention packages against 88 high-burden countries: a core health system package (breastfeeding counselling and the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative), a package that adds mass media campaigns and Code enforcement, and a full system package that also includes paid maternity leave and workplace support. Scaling any of these packages to 75 per cent coverage by 2035 generates strong returns, from $27 to $59 for every $1 invested, with the fullest package projected to avert up to 263,000 child deaths and $357 billion in economic losses over ten years.
A companion advocacy brief, Investing in Breastfeeding Saves Lives and Money, translates these findings into a shorter format for policymakers, donors and advocates. It sets out six priorities for accelerating breastfeeding at scale — protect, deliver, enable, finance, scale and partner — and makes the case for closing the financing and implementation gap that keeps proven interventions from reaching the women and children who need them.
Together, the two documents give the toolkit's audience both the full technical evidence base and a ready-to-use advocacy tool: the report for those building detailed funding proposals or country-level models, and the brief for those making the case to donors, ministries or the public.