London, 1 June 2018 – The International Food and Beverage Alliance (IFBA) welcomes the report issued today by the World Health Organization (WHO) Independent High-level Commission (HLC) on Non-
communicable Diseases (NCDs).
A non-profit organization, IFBA brings together the leading global food and non-alcoholic beverage companies—The Coca-Cola Company, Danone, Ferrero, General Mills, Grupo Bimbo, Kellogg’s, Mars, McDonald’s, Mondelēz International, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever—to empower consumers to eat balanced diets and live healthier lives.
IFBA strongly agrees with the WHO HLC’s assessment that the WHO and other government agencies should increase engagement of the private sector to achieve further progress, and that a “fresh working relationship” must be established. We support, in particular, Recommendation 4 A, C and D calling for dialogue where “health is the priority” and inviting food and non-alcoholic beverage companies to focus on reformulation, labelling and responsible marketing.
These are the very actions IFBA has been working on over the last 10 years.
Since 2008, IFBA has been acting on a series of four global core commitments to address NCDs, including: offering more nutritious products and smaller portions, access to product nutrition facts, responsible marketing, and investing in employee and community health and wellness programs worldwide. All of IFBA’s core commitments have been designed to support the WHO’s Global Action Plan and the 2011 UN Declaration on the Prevention and Control of NCDs, among others.
For a full overview of our commitments, please review our latest progress report
Moving forward, IFBA would respectfully encourage the UN and WHO to expand the scope of their periodic reports on NCDs to include those actions that have been taken to date by non-State actors, like the private sector, so that future reports provide a more comprehensive analysis for all.
We know that, while our companies have made notable progress to date, we are on a long journey, more must be done, and we embrace the call for increased collaboration to further strengthen our efforts. IFBA is deeply encouraged by the WHO HLC’s assessment that private-public partnerships are an important means to finding successful solutions to NCDs, and we look forward to working together to effectively address NCDs and other critical global public health issues.
To read IFBA’s full comments on the report, please visit: IFBA Full Comments: WHO HLC NCDS Report.
