Amy William and Lina Abdelfattah, IFPRI Egypt
On December 17th, 2020, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) virtually launched a joint report that examines the implication of food policies, mainly trade and government food subsidies, on evolving nutritional transitions and associated body weight outcomes across selected countries in the NENA region. These countries are projected to hit alarmingly new obesity and overweight records within the next few decades.
The launch event started with some opening remarks shared by several distinguished speakers: including Mr. Serge Nakouzi (Deputy Regional Representative, FAO RNE), Dr. Johan Swinnen (Director General, IFPRI), and Dr. Maximo Torero (Chief Economist, FAO). Mr. Serge presented some evidence and regional trends on the prevalence of overweight and obesity in both adults and children, highlighting that regional obesity and overweight prevalence rates exceed the global average. Additionally, Dr. Swinnen explained how IFPRI-FAO's latest report would be relevant and value-adding during the global pandemic of COVID-19, stating that ‘‘COVID 19 has reminded us of the importance of nutrition of the importance of healthy food system’’. Finally, Dr. Torero stressed on the importance of having flexible trade policies that can avail a wider variety of foods to consumers.
Following the opening remarks session, Kibrom Abay, Research Fellow at IFPRI, has briefly presented the main findings and highlights of the joint study, which aims to assess the relationship between alternative trade(food) policies and changes in body weight outcomes. Abay also gave a brief about the conceptual framework of the study as well as the several drivers behind the rising obesity rates in the sampled countries. Change in lifestyle, nutrition transition, demographic transitions (urbanization) were mentioned as contributors.
Abay concluded with some remarks and policy recommendations, one of which is that the recent increase in rural obesity calls for integrated interventions. Much of the existing efforts and interventions address urban obesity, nevertheless, it remains vital to extend such initiatives to rural areas. With an increase in population density and with shrinking land and water resources, food and trade policies would be even more critical in the next few decades. Accordingly, integrating nutritional targets and designing nutrition-sensitive trade policies is important to curtail future trends and increases in obesity rates. Many governments have enacted alternative forms of taxes on energy-dense foods to address unintended (adverse) public health impacts of trade policies. Examples of such interventions are the Mexican sugar-sweetened beverage tax and the Danish tax on saturated fat. Adapting agricultural policies (e.g., subsidies) to produce healthy and nutritious foods as well as regulating food marketing and nutrition labeling practices can also help reduce the consumption of ‘‘unhealthy’’ foods and thereby limit further expansion in the obesity trend.
Abay’s presentation was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Olivier Ecker, Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI, with discussants from some NENA countries representing both public and private sectors. These discussions involved identifying how each stakeholder (e.g., policymakers, private sectors, research and academe, farmers organizations, and international development partners) can have a role in restoring such chronic malnutrition problems in the region.
The event concluded with an open discussion by speakers from Egypt, Morocco, Iraq, UAE, and Oman. The discussion was facilitated by Nomindelger Bayasgalanbat, a Nutrition and Food System Officer at FAO. This was followed by a Q&A session with participants.
