Food Marketing Regulation and Childhood Obesity Prevention

Obesity, or excessive fatness, is not a new phenomenon. What is startling is the recent increase in overweight and obesity prevalence in almost every country in the world, including low and middle income countries. As obesity carries with it a wide range of health problems, it has also an adverse economic impact, imposing a cost not only on affected individuals and their families, but also on society as a whole. The challenge facing governments and health authorities is to deliver a sustainable response to overweight and the obesity 'pandemic' by putting in place effective multisectoral strategies dealing with the many determinants of obesity.

As the regulation of food marketing is seen as a cornerstone of effective obesity prevention strategies, the 193 Member States gathered at the Sixty-third World Health Assembly in 2010 unanimously endorsed a set of Recommendations intended to guide efforts by Member States in designing new and/or strengthening existing policies on food marketing to children (the Recommendations) through adoption of Resolution WHA 63.14. Since then, the World Health Organization has commissioned a Framework Implementation Report which I co-drafted with a view to putting some flesh on the bones of the Recommendations and provide guidance to Member States on how best to implement them.

The project is a follow up to the adoption of the Recommendations as interpreted by the Framework Implementation Report. It seeks to provide further guidance to Member States on how these Recommendations could help to improve the regulatory framework at a national level. It is therefore intended to assist policy makers and other stakeholders in developing the legal skills required to design food marketing policies. This will, in turn, contribute to the adoption of more effective childhood obesity prevention strategies.

The project is divided into three distinct, closely related phases. The first phase consists of a six-month placement at the headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva, in the Unit dealing with population-based prevention for diet and physical activity as two major risk factors for non communicable diseases. Using the Framework Implementation Report I co-drafted, I will provide direct support to a selected number of Member States from across the WHO Regions, including the UK as well as a range of low and middle income countries, to identify potential barriers to implementation and develop potential solutions. I will work on developing a specific evaluation tool which the selected Member States will use to identify the barriers for implementation and develop strategies to overcome them.

The second part of the project consists of the organisation of a one-day workshop in London which will focus on what the UK should do to fully comply with the Recommendations. This workshop will be designed specifically for all stakeholders directly or indirectly involved in the decision-making process and will ensure their participation at all stages of the workshop, from its preparation to its delivery and dissemination.

The third and final part of the project consists of the publication of a book in English on the regulation of food marketing to children which will capture existing knowledge on this issue and allow for its broad dissemination. It is therefore intended to support the development of effective childhood obesity prevention strategies at both national and international level.

Firstly, the project will assist WHO and policy makers in developing the legal skills required to design food marketing policies. It will therefore contribute to the adoption of more effective childhood obesity prevention strategies at national, regional and international level. The project will be of particular benefit to the selected Member States working with the Investigator for the duration of the project, particularly during her six-month placement at WHO. It has been agreed that these States would include the UK in light of the her expertise and her knowledge of English law, as well as a selection of low and middle income countries which may not have the capacity to invest in policies restricting food marketing to children as much as growing obesity trends would require and are therefore in particular need for the development of creative solutions. The project nonetheless has the potential to reach all 193 Member States parties to the Recommendations through the sharing of the investigator's expertise with, and the training of, WHO staff members.

Secondly, the project will benefit consumer and public health organisations as key stakeholders involved in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of obesity prevention strategies. The project will inform their advocacy campaigns for stronger restrictions on the marketing of food to children and therefore assist them in developing the tools required to promote public health objectives at national, regional and international level. In particular, it will help them counteract more effectively the misconceived argument regularly advanced by food and advertising industry operators - and often relayed by policy makers - that the constitutionally protected right to free commercial speech prevents the imposition of any restrictions on food marketing to children.

Similarly, the project should benefit child-focused NGOs and children's rights advocacy groups, with a stronger basis to propose alternative strategies in the future. Adopting a children's rights approach to the issue of unhealthy food marketing offers much potential for law and policy reform, even though the development of obesity prevention strategies has tended to be rather low (if at all) on the agenda of children's rights NGOs/campaigners. This project aims to promote the best interest of the child in all policy areas, as mandated by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Indirectly, therefore, it should benefit children and their families, and therefore improve their welfare, particularly but not exclusively in the UK.

By developing a more thorough understanding of the arguments underpinning the debate about the regulation of food marketing to children, the project also has the potential to help food and advertising industry operators re-assess their position and more willingly embrace the need for significant changes in the discourse and the approaches they have adopted to date.

Finally, the Investigator's ability to frame the debate in more conceptual terms may also indirectly influence the thinking of policy makers and other stakeholders involved in the development of restrictions on the marketing of other products, including alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and pharmaceuticals, as part of effective public health strategies.

The project therefore has a very broad range of potential research user beneficiaries, both direct and indirect. This is due to at least three factors. Firstly, growing childhood obesity rates are a cause for concern in all countries in the world, thus making obesity a public health priority at national, regional and global levels. Secondly, obesity is a multifactorial condition which requires the concerted action of a broad range of stakeholders in a range of policy areas, including food marketing regulation. Finally, food marketing is a global issue affecting all countries in the world, thus making it an inherently international issue (see below).