WBTi has 4 components
1. A process of national assessment of policy and programmes
Key objective of a national assessment is to document the gaps in ‘Ten’ policy and programmes that are required to support women in breastfeeding their babies. It involves initiating a national assessment through coordinating a core group and national partners to work together. They identify gaps in existing policies and programmes, build consensus around the gaps and develop recommendations for action to bridge the gaps. The WBTi encourages re-assessment every 3-5 years.
The 15 indicators of assessment
The WBTi assessment focuses on a wide range of indicators, which provide an impartial global view of key factors. It has 15 indicators with each indicator having specific significance. These are 10 parameters related to policy/programmes, including how women are supported by the national policy, by the health care system both during delivery and in the community, by labour policies for maternity protection, by legal protection from commercial sector, by encouraging babies to breastfeed under disaster management policies, by policies of HIV department and monitoring of all of these. And 5 indicators are on infant and young child feeding practices. Each indicator has a subset of questions to be answered. Questionnaires are available at http://worldbreastfeedingtrends.org/wbti-tool/. The content has been updated 3rd time in May 2019.
2. A process for generating country reports on the gaps
Having information in hand the core group helps facilitate debates and discussions around the findings with a larger audience for developing recommendations to bridge the gaps. A draft report emerges which is shared with the WBTi global secretariat for verification of accuracy and quality. After having it finalised, the core group assists in advocacy for improving infant and young child policies and allocation of resources. The WBTi report and report card can be developed using the templates (available at http://worldbreastfeedingtrends.org/reporting-template/).
3. A web-tool for colour coding and objective scoring of indicators, as well as a data repository on policy & programmes.
The WBTi has a web-tool on its portal www.worldbreastfeedingtrends.org
After having finalised the report, data on all 15 indicators is fed into the web-tool. Score is generated for each individual indicator or all indicators together. The toolkit objectively quantifies the data to provide a colour coding i.e. 'Red', Yellow, Blue and Green based on ascending order of performance. The web-tool has the capacity to generate visual graphics in easily understandable formats to assist in developing reports/report cards and advocacy at all levels e.g. national, regional and international. These graphics quickly present the status and progress. It helps in demonstrating to the programme planners and policy makers where improvements are most needed. Focus of WBTi assessment remains on policy and programmes.
The web-tool stores information on policy and programmes, accessible to everyone. It serves as a unique global data bank of policies and programmes on breastfeeding and infant and young child feeding.
4. A system to use the findings and launch a ‘Call to Action’
Once the process of WBTi is complete the core group prepares for the launch of final report of assessment findings along with 'Call to action' to the respective governments and others concerned. The World Breastfeeding Costing (WBCi) tool is also available to create a budgeted plan of action, which can be used to advocate for funding with policy makers and programme managers.