NUTRITION

Healthy nutrition. The World Health Organization (WHO) is set to hold December 9-12 the Global Meeting to Accelerate Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals in Oman. The agency brings together world leaders, nutrition and health experts and private sector actors to “ensure a healthy life and promote well-being for everyone regardless of age” – and its challenge is to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases by one third by 2030 through prevention and treatment, and to promote mental health and well-being.

Echoing statements from United Nations Secretary-General António Guterrez, WHO Director Tedros Adhanom said that in order to accelerate progress on the health goal of the SDGs, funding and support from the private sector is needed. In this regard, the agency convened non-state actors at the global meeting in Oman to “strengthen their commitment and contribution to the implementation of national responses to prevent and control NCDs,” within the framework of target 3.4.

One of the side events that other agencies organized to strengthen WHO’s initiative is the NCD Alliance’s pioneer NCD webinar on “Healthy and Sustainable Food Policies and Systems for Reducing Diet-Related NCDs”. The event urged leaders to take urgent action to ensure that food systems are healthy and environmentally sustainable, with the aim of reducing NCDs linked to unhealthy eating.

Next steps

The World Health Organization will meet with world leaders, health and food experts, global organizations and private sector actors to call for accelerated progress on target 3.4 of the Sustainable Development Goals. WHO expects greater commitment from the private sector and states to scale up the interventions needed to achieve a one-third reduction in premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases by 2030 through prevention and treatment, some of which are food-related. Discussions around this event are expected to resume at the third Global NCD Alliance Forum, scheduled for February 9, 2020, in the United Arab Emirates.