Statement to the 75th Regional Committee for the Western Pacific

Statement to the 75th Regional Committee for Western Pacific

Your excellencies, delegates, and colleagues. We welcome the new Regional Action Framework for Non-communicable Disease Prevention and Control in the Western Pacific.

Building on this, obesity is also an important NCD, as well as a risk factor for other NCDs, which needs to be integrated into this Framework. The Western Pacific has some of the highest obesity prevalence globally and failure to address obesity risks jeopardizing efforts to address other NCDs and meet NCD targets.

The new global obesity recommendations and accompanying Acceleration Plan adopted at this year's World Health Assembly provide a framework to address obesity as part of wider NCD efforts, and we encourage Member States and WHO in the region to integrate these within the regional NCD framework.

This is particularly relevant in the context of reorientating service delivery to prevent and manage chronic illnesses at an earlier stage, and throughout the life course, which will require health service attention on obesity.

We stand ready to support efforts across the region.