In addition to the Comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant and young child nutrition, other global and regional strategies for addressing the double burden of malnutrition have been endorsed by the World Health Assembly and regional committees. Additionally, the WHO Secretariat has developed guidance and tools to support implementation of the respective global and regional strategies.
The Health Assembly adopted the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health in 2004, bringing into focus two risk factors for noncommunicable diseases along with continuing national and global efforts to address undernutrition. In 2010, the Assembly endorsed a set of recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children. These recommendations guide countries in designing new policies and improving existing ones to reduce the impact on children of the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children. WHO has also developed region-specific tools (such as regional nutrient profile models) that countries can use to implement the marketing recommendations.
In 2013, the Health Assembly agreed to nine global voluntary targets for the prevention and control of NCDs. These targets include halting the rise in diabetes and obesity, and a 30% relative reduction in the intake of salt by 2025. The Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases 2013–2020 provides guidance and policy options for Member States, WHO and other United Nations agencies to achieve the targets.
With many countries now seeing a rapid rise in obesity among infants and children, in May 2014 WHO set up the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity. In 2016, the Commission proposed a set of recommendations to successfully tackle childhood and adolescent obesity in different contexts around the world. The Secretariat developed an implementation package of population-based approaches for childhood obesity prevention. In line with this, WHO regions have developed nutrient profile models to assist countries in identifying foods and non-alcoholic beverages whose marketing should be restricted.
WHO Response in the African Region
In the African Region, progress towards achieving the six global targets set out in the 2012 implementation plan on maternal, infant and young child nutrition has been hampered by a policy environment that is under-equipped to control the consumption of poor-quality diets, as well as inadequate resources and capacity for effective programmes. As such, a new strategic plan to reduce the double burden of malnutrition in the African Region was adopted at the Sixty-ninth session of the Regional Committee in 2019.
The strategy aims to reduce all forms of malnutrition throughout the life course by prioritizing multisectoral collaboration, universal health coverage and partnerships. Its main objectives are to strengthen policies that promote, protect and support the consumption of safe and healthy diets; to strengthen national capacity for the prevention and management of all forms of malnutrition; and to strengthen the evidence base supporting policies and programmatic action.