Promoting Effective School Policies for Childhood Overweight & Obesity Prevention in Lebanon

Abstract

The K2P Policy Dialogue, was convened on March 7, 2019, to deliberate the issue of school policies for childhood obesity prevention in Lebanon in collaboration with Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) and Ministry of Public Health (MOPH). The dialogue hosted 32 diverse stakeholders from different sectors and from multi-disciplinary backgrounds to ensure richness of discussions. These included representatives from Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE), Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS), Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA), Ministry of Economy and Trade (MOET), Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Ministry of Industry (MOI), Representatives from the following Academic Institutions (AUB, BAU, LAU, Balamand), UN agencies (such as WFP and FAO), international non-governmental organizations such as IOCC, Representatives from the Union of Private schools in Lebanon, Union of Parents’ Committees, Youth and from the Citizen Consultations conducted earlier, The Impact Team, UNICEF representative was consulted after the dialogue. The policy dialogue was facilitated by Dr. Fadi El-Jardali, the Director of the K2P Center, and Dr. Rima Nakkash, the Associate Director of K2P Center, in the presence of Mr. Fadi Yarak, the Director General of the MEHE and Dr. Walid Ammar, the Director General of MOPH, represented by Mrs. Pamela Mansour Zghieb, the Head of Mother, Child and School Health Department at MOPH. Dialogue participants discussed the overall framing of the problem of childhood overweight and obesity in Lebanon. All participants acknowledged the existence of the problem and agreed on the need to dissect the multiple factors that are leading to it before discussing potential solutions.