European Childhood Obesity Prevention Alliance
The European Childhood Obesity Prevention Alliance is a network of concerned NGOs inaugurated during the WHO Europe Ministerial Conference on Counteracting Obesity held in Istanbul, November 15-17 2006.
Preventing childhood obesity is now increasingly recognized as an urgent public health challenge for Europe as for other regions. Estimates based on recent surveys indicate that 30% of European school children (almost 22 million school-age children in the 25 EU member states) are overweight, and this figure is rising by 1.2 million each year. Among the overweight children, at least 5 million are estimated to be obese, and their number is rising by more than 300,000 each year.
As a consequence, more than one million youngsters in the EU have indications of the metabolic syndrome, an obesity-related combination of risk factors for type 2 diabetes and heart disease, adding to the already rising levels of adult obesity, expected to reach 150 million throughout the whole of Europe by 2010, with an increasing burden of related chronic diseases.
One of the principal aims of the European alliance is to support closer co-ordination between NGOs, particularly at the EU level, and to provide guidance to NGOs at national level throughout Europe, where the focus on interaction with governments and other stakeholders is increasingly important in seeking to implement effective strategies to reverse the rising obesity trends.
Support for the European alliance has been pledged by NGOs concerned with the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases, including the following:
Organisations wishing to express their support and participate should contact:
Neville Rigby,
Director of Policy and Public Affairs,
IASO International Obesity TaskForce
231 North Gower Street, London NW1 2NR
Tel +447939250347
email: nrigby@iotf.org
IASO is a registered charity in the UK..Reg No. 1076981
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