NEAR EAST AND NORTH AFRICA Regional overview of food security and nutrition 2021: Statistics and trends

3.2 Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life

The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding among infants (0–5 months) has increased in the Arab region from 34.8 percent in 2012 to 38.4 percent in 2019. However, the rates are lower compared to the global average of 44 percent. The prevalence has increased in low-income economies and upper-middle economies, while it has declined in the lower-middle and high-income economies of the region. High-income countries showed the worst performance on this indicator with less than one-quarter of mothers having exclusively breastfed their infants for the first five months. In contrast, breastfeeding rates were highest in low-income countries, with 54.6 percent. Conflict-affected countries have relatively higher rates of exclusive breastfeeding (41.8 percent) compared to non-conflict countries (36.3 percent) in the region. Based on the latest country-level estimates, the Sudan had the highest prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding with 54.6 percent, whereas Somalia had the lowest with 5.3 percent.