Delegates from South America and Africa singing. 

lthough this is the first World Forum on breastfeeding, the breastfeeding message has found a place in many international conferences on its way to STOU. The breastfeeding message can be packaged in many ways. 

At the Malta Conference for the International Year of the Family (1993) and at the Conference on Population and Development (1994), we stressed breastfeeding as a means of child-spacing. 

At the International Conference on Nutrition (1992) and at the World Food Summit in Rome (October 1996), we stressed breastmilk as first food. 

In Rome we also convinced people that breastfeeding is part of sustainable local food production. The Rome Declaration on Food Security mentions briefly the importance of breastfeeding and draws attention to making programmes consistent with the Convention on the Rights of the child. 

The Beijing Conference on Women (1995) presented an opportunity to reposition breastfeeding in the larger women's agenda. Again breastfeeding slipped into the final Plan of Section under the topic of support for breastfeeding for employed women and implementing the Code for the Marketing of Breastmilk substitutes. 

These UN conferences have taught us how to translate the cultural meanting of breastfeeding across national boundaries, to forge new alliances and to link breastfeeding with other global issues. Often WABA was represented at these conferences by partner organiSations. The Global Forum will be the first opportunity for us all to meet face to face, to celebrate where we have been and where we are going.