deaths arising from NCDs, reduce sodium and salt intake, reduce the prevalence of high blood pressure, reduce the prevalence of insufficient physical activity, and completely halt the rise in the incidence of diabetes and obesity. Technical guidelines and recommendations elaborate specific measures to be undertaken in the context of physical activity (8), salt and sugar intake (9, 10), and marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages (NABs) to children (11). In addition, domestic policy and legal frameworks (e.g. constitutional protections of the right to life and to health) can be used to reinforce broad human rights and standards specific to commitments related to NCDs (12).
public health outcomes. However, the text is designed to be accessible to students in disciplines other than law. For example, those studying medicine and public health can use it to understand how law relates to public health, and those studying government and public administration can use it to understand how law can influence public health decisions in the context of NCDs. As a common academic resource, the toolkit may stimulate and strengthen dialogue between different disciplines about NCDs and potentially about other global health challenges.
Purpose and scope
Methodology
This toolkit focuses on regulatory and fiscal measures to avoid or reduce the major NCD risk factors of unhealthy diets and physical inactivity. It does not address the two other major risk factors (tobacco use and the harmful use of alcohol) or secondary strategies for NCD prevention and treatment.2 As mentioned above, this publication focuses on three countries in East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. With few exceptions, undergraduate training of legal and public health professionals in these countries does not include the law’s role in promoting health. This toolkit is a resource that can be used to develop curricula that incorporate regulatory and fiscal measures for the promotion of healthy diets and physical activity. It can also help to strengthen capacity within the areas of law and public health, by supporting the work of legal and public health academia in universities. The toolkit is intended for academics and students in public health, law and related disciplines. It deals with legal approaches to health; thus, students of law can use it to learn how laws, regulations and legal strategies can be used to promote
This toolkit presents and analyses the legal and policy frameworks (international, regional and national) that orient governments’ decisions on legal and regulatory measures to promote healthy diets and physical activity, and thus to prevent NCDs. It draws on background reviews from WHO involving thorough desktop research on the legal and policy frameworks for Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda relevant to the governance of healthy diets and physical activity. The findings of this desktop research were supplemented through additional research on law and policy relevant to NCD prevention and control. The publication also involved a participatory, consultative process with academics from schools of law and schools of public health from the three countries involved. In addition to contributing technical and geographical expertise, scholars from different disciplines helped to ensure that the content is suitable for use in legal and other disciplines at various levels. The draft was also shared for review with WHO, and legal and public health academics and expert reviewers. Data on the NCD profiles of each country were derived from national and international sources published by WHO, United Nations (UN) agencies and various ministries or departments from the individual countries.
2
Secondary strategies aim to stop the progression of disease after its occurrence.
Toolkit on regulatory approaches to noncommunicable diseases: healthy diets and physical activity
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