World Obesity at the United Nations Multistakeholder Hearing on NCDs

On Friday, 2 May 2025, World Obesity Federation volunteers and staff participated in the Interactive Multistakeholder Hearing at United Nations Headquarters in New York calling for action on obesity to be at the heart of the global noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) response.

This hearing provided a crucial opportunity for World Obesity and its community to elevate the urgency of systemic action on obesity within the broader global NCD agenda, ahead of the Fourth High-Level Meeting (HLM) of the UN General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of NCDs and mental health.

Convened by the President of the UN General Assembly, the hearing engaged civil society, academia, the private sector, and people with lived experience in shaping the outcome document for the HLM, scheduled to take place on 25 September 2025.

This HLM will be the fourth since 2011 and will reaffirm the commitment of UN Member States to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by one-third by 2030 and to enhance mental health and well-being, as outlined in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 3.4.

Representing World Obesity Federation, Board members Amber Huett-Garcia and Dr Karen Sealey joined the proceedings in person sharing our message that investing in a multisectoral approach to obesity yields a double dividend, impacting obesity and CVD, diabetes, cancer, and other diseases associated with it.

Amber stated in her intervention: 

“We must strengthen and reimagine health systems for people living with obesity and one where NCDs are treated holistically. A system where being one of the billion people in the world living with obesity does not mean you are excluded from care ... I stand in solidarity with advocates in South Africa who are comparing the obesity epidemic there to HIV/Aids. Increasing equitable, affordable access to the full range of obesity prevention and management services required must be a priority for the HLM negotiations.”

World Obesity’s CEO, Johanna Ralston, spoke during a panel session focused on the determinants of health, highlighting the critical and often overlooked role of obesity as a driver of NCDs globally, the need for coordinated multisectoral, multistakeholder action to break down silos, and the vital importance of working with people with lived experience.

Quote from Johanna’s statement:

“People with lived experience of all NCDS have for too long been insufficiently included at the highest levels of ideation, governance and strategy in the NCD movement. Who better to demonstrate the success of a multisectoral approach – or call out its limitations – than the individuals who directly navigate these systems and who are harmed when our policies are incondite and even harmful. We must have greater unity as a movement. As we face the need to confront and call out governments and industries to do more, do better, and promote health, we need strength in numbers. Collectively, we can stand up to the forces that attempt to undermine our efforts, and the strength and legitimacy of people with lived experience must be central to this. 

People with lived experience are among the strongest individuals I know. It is time to stop asking them – us, actually, because I also live with NCDs – to come to the table late in the game; we need to build the table together. We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

Download our statement

Download the statement given by Johanna Ralston on behalf of the World Obesity Federation here.