XUNICEF Quarterly June 2021

I paid for my own lunch

by Agop Kayayan

I was a recently hired “green'' young man in UNICEF Brazil. I knew very little about children. The Representative was the impressive David Haxton. He single-handedly wrote a document, which would become a permanent record of that office. The paper described the situation of children in the vast and diverse continental-sized country and proposed themes of action for UNICEF.

One of his proposals was a strong advocacy campaign in support of breastfeeding. At the time, the traditional ‘Lions of Nutrition’ were still active in the organization. I separated myself from the project after being frustrated on more than one occasion. As a newcomer to UNICEF “I kept my mouth shut”. I believe that David realized what was happening and he kept inviting me to office meetings related to breastfeeding.

Prior to joining UNICEF, I was the representative of the Ministry of Agriculture on the advisory board of INAN. I followed a ten week course on nutrition planning at MIT and I had written the national nutrition planning document which was submitted and funded by the World Bank… but I knew little about breastfeeding. My own conclusion was that “these people must know a lot more than me”.

I got involved again with the project when a consultant in Sao Paulo sent a report. I was not impressed, but followed my self-imposed “be quiet” policy. At one point, however, I could not resist strongly criticizing the total absence of any economic considerations. Brazil at the time had around 130 million people. Whether mothers were using breastmilk substitutes or breastfeeding had enormous implications for the overall economy of the country and especially for the economy of poor families. So I did raise the issue at the meeting about the document. Everyone except David Haxton did not consider the issue to be important, and frankly I was furious. Now my fury was no longer controllable by the self-imposed “be quiet” policy.

A group of volunteer women kept pressing UNICEF to confront the breastmilk substitute companies. The companies had formally promised not to distribute their products in maternities and hospitals, but their agents were caught several times distributing breastmilk substitutes. One of the companies was Nestle. Initially, their representatives denied the allegations, but had to accept the facts when confronted with the names of the agents and the maternities involved. The matter became “of interest” to Nestle and they proposed a meeting with the volunteer organization and UNICEF. I happened to be the “defender” of the volunteer organization at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At one point, I mentioned that if the companies would be caught distributing breastmilk substitutes that the volunteer organization should consider a “boycott” of a company such as Nestle. I hardly finished my intervention, when the Nestle representative looked hard at the “junior” Ministry representative, who then asked to intervene. And the “poor” individual says “Mr. Kayayan, we hope you are more careful with your comments.” I say “poor“ because he fell into an easy trap. At that point, I, Mr. Kayayan, said loudly and indignantly something to the effect of “you be careful sir, because as a representative of UNICEF I can say anything that is true and relevant in our business”. The young man had to apologize.

Interestingly, when I retired, the Nestle representative called to ask whether I would accept an invitation for lunch. So I showed up at a fancy restaurant of one of the fancy hotels of Brasilia. At coffee time he and his “vice president” colleague (there are many who get that title for prestige reasons in multinationals and banks) said how happy they were to meet with me. I returned the compliment.

Then, I was asked the expected question, “ Mr. Kayayan, now that you are retiring from UNICEF, the positions you expressed were yours personally or those of the organization?” After taking a long sip of my coffee, I gave my answer was that was unexpected. I expressed the views of my organization of course, but sometimes, like in the case of Nestle, I had my own in addition to the organization’s, and mine are much harsher. “But do not worry; I am paying for my own lunch and I wish you a very happy afternoon.” One of the days I enjoyed enormously!

An important postscript: those of us who are interested in reducing absolute poverty, should remember that breastfeeding is the best nutrition for young children and the most economical. Multinationals producing breast milk substitutes will hate you for it and we should consider that an honor.

A second postscript: the international staff of UNICEF in Brasilia lived close to each other. One night before going to the same dinner event we met at David Haxton’s house (he was my wonderful guru). David and two other men were discussing breastfeeding. Suddenly he stopped the discussion and said something like “look at the Macho group we are, three men discussing breastfeeding and not listening to three women who have breastfed, and a Lebanese Armenian who keeps his mouth shut, he does not even drink with us”. RIP David.

Click here to return to main document

Click here to return to Table of Content