Copyright Diego Cervo

Ending Childhood Obesity

Uppsala, Sweden, October 10–12 2016

Keynote address by Dr Sania Nishtar

Dr Sania Nishtar, Co-chair of the WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity, opened Uppsala Health Summit 2016 with this video on October 11 2016.

Actions through health and food equity

Childhood obesity is one of our major challenges to health, putting advancements made in global health at serious risk.

In January 2016, the WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity presented its final report, a package of strong recommendations aimed at reversing the rising trend of children becoming overweight and obese. At Uppsala Health Summit in October 2017, we convened in dialogue on how to translate these recommendations into concrete action.

Uppsala Health Summit concluded its deliberations on how to end childhood obesity with a number of recommendations to governments, the food industry and numerous other stakeholders. Read the press release with a summary of the conclusions. A full Post-Conference Report from Uppsala Health Summit will be published in January 2017.

Keynote presentations 2016

  • Dr. Stefan Swartling Petersson, Chief Health Section, UNICEF

  • Director General Alejandro Calvillo, El Poder del Consumidor, Mexico

  • Dr Lisa M Powell, Professor University of Illinois at Chicago

  • Dr Maria Bonilla Chacin, Senior Economist, World Bank

  • Dr Garrath Williams, Senior Lecturer, Lancaster University

  • Dr. Frank Bloomfield, Professor, Director, Liggins Institute, University of Auckland

  • Dr Corinna Hawkes, Professor and Director, Centre for Food Policy, City University, London

  • Gabriel Wikström, Minister for Health Care, Public Health and Sports, Sweden

  • Dr Douglas Bettcher, Director, Dept. Prevention of Non-communicable Diseases, WHO

  • Dr Boyd Swinburn, Professor, University of Auckland, Director, WHO Obesity Collaboration Centre

  • Dr Claude Marcus, Professor, Karolinska Institutet, Pediatrician, Karolinska University Hospital

  • Dr Shawn T. Brown, Centre Director Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  • Celina Gorre, Executive Director, Global Alliance Chronic Disease

  • Dr Julie S Downs, Director, Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon University

FACTS AND FIGURES: CHILDHOOD OBESITY

  • Overweight prevalence among children aged under 5 years increased between 1990 and 2014, from 4.8 % to 6.1 %.
  • Around 42 million children under 5 years are overweight or obese today. If trends persist, this figure will reach 70 million by 2025.
  • By 2025 the majority of obese or overweight children will live in low- and middle income countries.
  • In high-income countries, overweight and obesity is generally plateauing. However, among children in socially disadvantages groups prevalence is still increasing.
  • In 2014, 13 % of the world’s population, adults and children, was obese.
  • 350 million people, or 5 % of the world’s population, live with diabetes.
  • The prevalence of diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to increase by 100 % by 2035.

Policy documents

Last modified: 2021-08-19
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