Alice, I'm really glad you have asked that question re conference sponsorship.
The issue around accepting artificial formula sponsorship came up at ICM in
Manila in May this year. Sadly, the ICM Board of Mangement wanted the ICM
council to consider the proposal of accepting the presence of artificial
formula companies at the conferences and thereby accepting the commercial
fee for them to have a stall.
Acceptance of any sponsorship by artificial formula companies had already
been rejected at the ICM in Oslo and council delegates were surprised to see
it back on the agenda. I'm pleased to be able to say that the the
overwhelming majority of member associations rejected the BOM proposal.
However, it turned out that there was some sponsorship monies about anyway
in the form of logos been used on delegate's I.D.'s. Many of us were very
ignorant of the fact that the logo was associated with a company that
provided artificial formula in developing countries. There was a outcry from
attendees and an announcement about the logo and an apology was made. Many
removed their I.D. in protest.
In council, it was also noted that the vast majority of midwifery
organisations in the world do not accept sponsorship. Ironically, some of
the largest ones in developed countries that have fairly reasonable
resources anyway are the ones who do accept sponsorship monies/advertising
for their journals and A.F. company stalls at their conferences. When this
was demonstrated by a show of hands in council I wonder what those members
in the minority were thinking?
Your question has reminded me of all of this and how we need to be aware and
ask ethical questions about who is sponsoring the conferences that
appear/advertise on this list.
Thanks Kerri-Anne Gifford
Community Midwife, UK.
Association of Radical Midwives' Delegate to ICM Council Oslo 1996, Manila 1999.
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