Health ministers from eight small states of the World Health Organisation's European Region have agreed to work together to address obesity in children.
The eight nations met in St Julian's to sign the Malta Statement on ‘Ending Childhood Obesity’.
“With almost a third of school-age children overweight or obese in many countries in Europe, we must boost children’s access to healthy food and opportunities to be physically active” WHO regional director for Europe Zsuzsanna Jakab said.
“Children deserve policies that protect them from obesity. Small countries, with their unique circumstances and reach, can innovate, transform, and develop the recipe for success so society can address this challenge that threatens children’s futures.”
She was addressing the fourth high-level meeting of the small countries, organised by WHO and the Health Ministry, under the framework of the WHO Small Countries Initiative.
Health Minister Chris Fearne said that Malta was aware of the need to tackle childhood obesity and for the last six months championed this as one of the major themes in Malta’s EU Presidency.
It launched a set of procurement guidelines for schools and other entities that worked closely with children to procure healthy foods, he said.
The ministers agreed to join forces and launch comprehensive initiatives to address obesity in children.
Governments were being called upon to ensure stronger restrictions on the marketing of foods high in saturated fat, free sugars, and salt to children, promote clear and easy-to-understand labelling, as well as improve the nutritional composition of food products in line with the European Food and Nutrition Action Plan 2015-2020, the Physical Activity Strategy for the WHO European Region 2016-2025, and the recently adopted EU Council Conclusions on Childhood Obesity.
The statement acknowledged that governments could contribute to better diets and increase physical activity levels of their populations through changes to the wider environments and contexts in which we make our daily food and activity choices.
First WHO collaborating centre in Malta
The meeting also designated the Islands and Small States Institute at the University of Malta a ‘WHO collaborating centre on health systems and policies in small states’.
It will work with WHO as a centre of excellence and specifically develop frameworks and policies for strengthening resilience in small state health systems; co-organise capacity-building events on health system leadership and governance in the specific contexts of small states; support the area of health information and evidence generation in small states; and develop appropriate performance assessment mechanisms for small health systems.
The institute has a notable track record of top-level policy research on resilience, economy, environment and health in small states.
WHO collaborating centres are institutions such as research institutes, parts of universities, or academies that are designated by the WHO director-general to carry out activities in support of the Organisation’s programmes. Currently there are over 700 WHO collaborating centres in 80 countries.