2014
November
World Obesity publishes open letter to the heads of FAO and WHO calling for a binding treaty to tackle poor diets, supported by over 320 international experts and civil society organisations.
World Obesity and Consumers International have today published an open letter to the heads of the WHO and FAO calling for a binding treaty to tackle poor diets. The letter urges greater action to protect and promote healthy diets using a similar mechanism to the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control which has already proved successful in reducing tobacco use. The calls come as member states gather in Rome for the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) to discuss policies for ‘ending malnutrition in all its forms’. The Calls are supported by over 320 international experts, academics, advocates and civil society organisations as well as the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter.
To share your support for these calls on Twitter please use the hashtag #ICN2 and #FoodTreatyNow. If you would like to sign the letter and have not already done so please emailhbrinsden@worldobesity.org or tweet us @worldobesity
To read the full press release click here [English] [Spanish]
To read the letter click here [English] [Spanish]
For more information about the calls for a diet convention click here
For more information about ICN2 click here
World Obesity Policy Director Dr Tim Lobstein attended the Commission hearing, held at WHO headquarters in Geneva in October. At the hearing questions were asked about how stakeholders could contribute to the Commission, the barriers faced, measures of success and appropriate accountability mechanisms. To see our responses click here, or for more information about the Commission click here.
October
Outcome document from 'food corporations and human rights' conference now available
World Obesity Policy Director Dr Tim Lobstein and Policy & Prevention Co-Chair Prof. Boyd Swinburn both presented at this multidisciplinary conference convened in Oslo, Norway (September 11-12 2014). The meeting considered the urgent need to bring human rights norms and principles into debates and actions to promote healthy food and nutrition. See here for more information
World Obesity welcomes the new PAHO Plan of Action for the Prevention of Child and Adolescent Obesity - 3rd October
The Action Plan was adopted at the 66th Session of the Regional Committee for the Americas and sets out a plan for preventing child obesity, with a particular emphasis on food environments and preventative measures such as improved labelling, marketing restrictions and school education.
World Obesity, Consumers International, World Cancer Research Fund- International, The Public Health Institute, InterAmerican Heart Foundation and the Healthy Latin America Coalition read a statement at the meeting which welcomes Plan of Action and called on members states to take a comprehensive approach to tackling obesity and called for support for a Global Convention to Protect and Promote Healthy Diets. The statement has been supported by 170+ civil society organisations throughout the region. The statement can be viewed here: [English] [Spanish]
September
World Obesity welcomes the adoption of the WHO European Food and Nutrition Action Plan 2015-2020 - 15th September
World Obesity welcomes the adoption of the European Food and Nutrition Action Plan 2015-2020 by the 64th Regional Committee meeting of WHO Europe. A joint statement of support from World Obesity and other civil society organisations was read out at the meeting, welcoming the Plan and urging member states to implement a clear monitoring framework. You can see the statement here.
August
Researchers find ‘huge gaps’ in New Zealand’s healthy food policies - 7th August
Researchers have identified major gaps in the New Zealand government’s policies to promote healthier diets, with poor progress found in three-quarters (74%) of the recommended areas, according to a report published this week. The publication is the first of a series of 'Food Environment Performance Index' (Food-EPI) reportsto be published as part of INFORMAS which will score governments around the world on their actions to support and encourage healthy food choices. INFORMAS is supported by the World Obesity Federation and coordinated jointly by the University of Auckland and Deakin University, Melbourne.Statement by European and international civil society organisations concerned with nutrition to the 64th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe, Copenhagen, 15-18 September 2014, on the European Food and Nutrition Action Plan
2015-2020
For more information about INFORMAS click here
The NICE document is here
July
The calls were made at the UN NCD review, held 10-11 July 2014 in New York
June
Full SACN report available here
May
World Obesity responds to Welsh government consultation 'listening to you: your health matters' - 25th May
World Obesity responds to FAO/WHO consultation on the draft political declaration for ICN2 - 28th May
World Obesity delivers joint statement to the 67th World Health Assembly welcoming WHO attention on maternal, infant and young child nutrition - 21st May
World Obesity and Consumers International are calling on the international community to develop a global convention to fight diet-related ill health, similar to the legal framework for tobacco control. Unhealthy diets now rank along with tobacco and alcohol as the three leading causes of disease and early death globally. The jointly published report 'Recommendations towards a Global Convention to protect and promote healthy diets' calls for government commitment to introduce a raft of policy measures designed to help consumers make healthier choices and improve nutrition security for everyone and is published on May 19th and launched at a side event of the World Health Assembly in Geneva on May 21st. For further information about the call click here
World Obesity launches atlas of European projects aiming to tackle adult obesity - 20th May
World Obesity's new atlas, developed as part of the SPOTLIGHT project which is supported by a 3m Euro grant from the European Union's FP7 Research Programme, shows details of initiatives being taken in 24 countries in the European region, with links to the project websites and details of the interventions and the target populations. It focuses on interventions in the community aimed at adults, many of which include lower-income and disadvantaged groups. The atlas is available here
April
Preventing obesity in pre-school aged children - 30th April
World Obesity has published a new briefing paper on the prevention of obesity in pre-school aged children, including a summary of interventions to date with estimates of cost-effectiveness and examples of policy implementation. The briefing was published as part of the EU-funded ToyBox-study which ends this month.
March
World Obesity's International Congress on Obesity gets underway in Kuala Lumpur -17th March
Over 1000 of the world’s leading researchers and medical experts on obesity and related diseases gathered in Kuala Lumpur for the 12th International Congress on Obesity (ICO), the official congress of the World Obesity Federation. For headline news and research from the congress click here
January
NCD briefing from IASO - 10th January
IASO publishes a new policy briefing paper urging government action on obesity and NCDs. The briefing is available here and supporting documentation is available here