World Obesity Day. March 2021

BETTER HEALTH PROGRAMME SOUTH AFRICA

CASE STUDIES

MARCH 2021

WORLD OBESITY DAY

You cannot clap with one hand.

African proverb, Joseph Mwangi

WHO NCD Adviser ”

With nearly half of the adult population obese or overweight, South Africa has an urgent need to tackle its escalating obesity crisis. To raise awareness of this challenge, the National Department of Health (NDoH) commemorated World Obesity Day on March 4, 2021 with technical support from BHPSA.

WIDE REACH

The NDoH shared the webinar invitation with stakeholders engaged in previous national nutrition week commemorations, including provincial departments of health. Participating NGOs were invited to publicise the webinar on their respective social media platforms. Two hundred and forty people joined the webinar including national and provincial NCD and nutrition coordinators and other interested parties. The one-hour webinar was successful in creating interest and engagement on the topic, and a press release, written by the Association for Dietetics in South Africa (ASDA), was published in five online newspapers.

THE BIG PICTURE

The webinar was opened by Dr Joseph Mwangi, World Health Organization (WHO) NCD adviser in South Africa, who set the scene with a global snapshot of obesity: 800 million people around the world are already living with the disease and childhood obesity is expected to increase by 60% over the next decade.

Deputy Director for NCDs in the NDoH, Itumuleng Setlhare, explained that obesity is an important modifiable risk factor for NCDs such as diabetes and hypertension, which are a heavy burden on the health system. In addition, these multimorbidities have been linked to severe COVID-19 disease and death. Setlhare said it is important to strengthen NCD prevention by improving health literacy and implementing strategies to reduce tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and air pollution. One of the great challenges for the country is to make healthy diets accessible when people are surrounded by unhealthy foods.

Rebone Ntsie, Director for Nutrition in the NDoH, followed up by emphasising that obesity was just one part of the triple burden of malnutrition in South Africa: overnutrition, undernutrition and micronutrient malnutrition (particularly deficiencies in Vitamin A, D and iron). While seemingly different, these types of malnutrition can occur even within the same household. She quoted two recent studies show that hunger, particularly child hunger, and food insecurity in the country has worsened considerably during the COVID-19 pandemic.

THE NDOH RESPONSE

Ntsie provided a brief outline of NDoH policy and programming in response to SA’s obesity and nutrition crises: ■ The National Food and Nutrition Plan (2018-2023). This is a multisectoral approach to address the triple burden of malnutrition, including a communication strategy that aims to influence people across the life cycle to make informed food and nutrition choices. ■ The Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Obesity (2015-2020). This is currently being updated, with support from BHPSA and other partners. The review team will include a range of technical experts specialising in the prevention and control of obesity. ■ Front of Package Labelling on Foods (FoPL). Research has been conducted and a simplified warning message developed for packaged foods, which will soon become mandatory. ■ The National Dietary Intake Study. This will aid the development of evidence-based interventions and inform the updated obesity strategy.

BHPSA SUPPORT

BHPSA was afforded the opportunity to present on our support to the various NDoH NCD strategies. Vimla Moodley, BHPSA’s NCD workstream lead, described the programme’s work as part of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) Prosperity Fund and its focus on NCDs. In addition to supporting the obesity strategy review, BHPSA has given technical support to the finalisation of the National Strategic Plan for NCDs and will be working to strengthen the capacity of community health workers to provide NCD services, amongst other support.

BHPSA’s FCDO Adviser Tori Bungane, also gave a verbal message of support expressing pride at being able to contribute to this important event. She mentioned that there have been similar campaigns in the UK around food labelling (FoPL) and marketing unhealthy foods to children. Mwangi responded with thanks and appreciation of FCDO support, quoting the African proverb “you cannot clap with one hand”.

CONCLUSION

Other verbal and written messages of support came from the WHO, UNICEF, Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and NGOs in the field such as the ASDA, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation as well as other government bodies. Ntsie and Mwangi thanked all partners who participated in the webinar and urged them to bring attention to the issues discussed and the World Obesity Day theme “Every Body needs everybody.”

View the webinar recording here… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep9NnjGwgwU

The UK’s Better Health Programme (BHP) is a global health system strengthening programme led by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and delivered in South Africa by Mott MacDonald