Reframing obesity with People with Lived Experience at the centre

On May 12, on the sidelines of ECO 2025, World Obesity and the Global Obesity Patient Alliance (GOPA) co-hosted a session for people living with obesity.

Efforts to address obesity need to ensure that the needs and perspectives of people living with obesity (PLWO) are placed at the centre of planning, policies and narratives, at global, national and local level. This will ensure that systems, services, plans, and policies can be more effective in preventing and managing obesity, and addressing the stigma and bias that currently undermine these efforts and damage the health of individuals.

With the 4th UN High-level Meeting on NCDs on the horizon in September 2025, it is timely and necessary to amplify the lived experience voice by creating a cadre of PLWO with advocacy skills and confidence across a diverse range of countries, enabling them to share their needs and perspectives and providing a platform for these voices to be heard.

PWLE have been insufficiently included at the highest ideation, governance and strategy levels in the NCD movement. Who better to demonstrate the success of a multisectoral approach – or call out its limitations – than the individuals who directly navigate these systems and who are harmed when our policies are incondite and even harmful. 

In light of the upcoming HLM4, we need to ensure that PWLE have their seat at the table and don’t speak from the floor anymore. Collectively, we must stand up to the forces that attempt to undermine our efforts, and the strength and legitimacy of PWLE must be central to this.

Through the delivery of a series of advocacy trainings for PLWO throught 2025 and 2026, World Obesity & GOPA aim to build advocacy capacity among PLWO, enabling people to share their needs and perspectives, and amplifying their voices on decision-making platforms.