Argentina develops a digital monitoring platform to tackle aggressive marketing of commercial milk formula

Source: Alive & Thrive

In Argentina, one-third of infants and young children are breastfed. Not improving breastfeeding from its current rates is contributing to child mortality, morbidity, and health system expenses, costing Argentina USD 4.4 billion every year.

Aggressive and unethical marketing of commercial milk formula and related products undermines breastfeeding. Digital marketing is especially rampant revealing an urgent need for systematic monitoring and more vigorous enforcement.

With support from UNICEF Argentina and civil society organizations such as FUNDEPS and Fundación Sanar, Alive & Thrive and the Innovations Incubator are developing a national Code Monitoring Digital Platform, which includes an AI-powered Virtual Violations Detector (VIVID), which aims to integrate monitoring findings on the digital platforms with an enforcement action tracker to strengthen enforcement. The platform will also include a crowdsourced online reporting form for reporting violations in non-digital settings and an e-hub for relevant resources.