We’re so delighted to have been invited to take part in a panel discussion at the Healthy Caribbean Coalition and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados’ event on childhood obesity.

This event will take place at the beautiful Hilton Hotel in Barbados on 20th November in recognition of Universal Children’s Day and the official end of the HCC’s childhood obesity prevention campaign.

One of the key parts of this campaign was the HCC’s childhood obesity prevention petition which called on our Heads of Government to enact any of the following policies and legislation which have been demonstrated as effective measures to combat childhood  obesity:

• Imposition of a tax of not less than 20% on Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) and use tax revenue for NCD prevention and control.
• Banning the sale, promotion and marketing of SSBs, and unhealthy foods and beverages in and around schools.
• Mandatory physical activity in all primary and secondary schools
• Adoption and application of regional standards for nutritional and front of package labelling of foods and beverages.
• Banning the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children (includes non-school environments)
• Enacting legislation related to The International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.

This event will officially close the petition and campaign by bringing together a wide cross section of national and regional stakeholders to celebrate the achievements of the campaign and to chart the way forward.

The meeting will provide a unique opportunity for organizations across the Caribbean, who took part in the campaign, to discuss the progress made over the course of the campaign and share national and regional successes and lessons learned in childhood obesity prevention advocacy platforms.

This one-day forum will also serve to leverage the energy and momentum of the past seven months and redirect it towards focussed evidence-based advocacy in support of creating healthy school environments across the Caribbean.

Lake Health and Wellbeing, as participant of the campaign and a member of the campaign’s civil society action team has been invited to take part in a panel discussion on the importance of coalitions and CSO collaboration around critical issues such as childhood obesity.

We’re very much looking forward to taking part in this very important event and are honoured to have been invited to participate – a big thank you to the HCC and HSFB for the invitation.