GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - January 22 - Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) today hailed the adoption of a World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board resolution recommending that the 57th World Health Assembly in May 2004 endorse a Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. However, public interest NGOs also raised concerns about ongoing attempts by the food industry to undermine the Global Strategy, and about broader questions of conflicts of interest within the world's foremost health body. Such concerns are also emerging in the Executive Board's debate on a new WHO policy for relations with NGOs.

Industrialized and developing countries are grappling with a growing burden of noncommunicable diseases, including an epidemic of obesity. The WHO's proposed Global Strategy creates a framework for member states to inform consumers about the dangers of foods high in sugar, salt and fat; curtail promotion of unhealthy food; and institute price policies to encourage healthy eating. The strategy has come under attack by food corporations, industry associations and the US government. US officials have even denied any connection between unhealthy foods and obesity, as the US faces the highest rates of obesity in the world.

Infact, a US-based corporate accountability organization active in negotiations on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), which supports governments worldwide in protecting infant health and promoting breastfeeding, have long been watchdogs of industry influence at WHO. In statements delivered to the Executive Board this week, Infact and IBFAN highlighted lessons from the tobacco control movement, the FCTC process and the infant feeding debates. The FCTC was unanimously adopted by the WHA in May 2003, and will take effect as international law once 40 countries have signed and ratified it. To date, more than 80 countries have signed and five have ratified.

"As in the FCTC negotiations, the US is taking positions that benefit a powerful industry at the expense of the public interest," says Infact Executive Director Kathryn Mulvey. "While our government's representatives -more- defy logic in focusing solely on individual responsibility and denying the harmful effects of corporate marketing, people are fed up with the extent of corporate influence over the Bush Administration, and questioning the corporate connection between big food and big tobacco," she continues. The transnational now known as Altria owns Philip Morris, the world's most profitable tobacco corporation, and Kraft, one of the world's largest food corporations.

The resolution on the Global Strategy was strengthened with a provision requesting the WHO Director-General to ensure avoidance of potential conflicts of interest in WHO's cooperation with the private sector in implementing the strategy. The WHO has set positive precedents in resolutions on infant feeding, and throughout the FCTC process. Tobacco corporations, their subsidiaries and affiliates were excluded from the negotiations on the grounds that their aims run counter to those of the treaty.

However, NGOs and some member states remain concerned about WHO's lack of safeguards to insulate health policy-making and standard-setting from industry interference. WHO's proposed new policy for relations with NGOs, slated for adoption at this year's WHA, still blurs the distinction between public interest NGOs and those linked to commercial interests. Public interest NGO representatives have established a new council to focus on these issues and enhance their working relationship with WHO.

"While we welcome steps taken by WHO to simplify and accelerate its process for accreditation of and collaboration with NGOs, we caution that the draft presented to the Executive Board could be a Trojan horse for business interests to swarm the WHO in the guise of NGOs," says Lida Lhotska of IBFAN. "It is essential that WHO provide workable mechanisms for busy delegates to distinguish between NGOs representing the public interest and those linked to commercial interests," she notes. WHO's Guidelines for Interactions with Commercial Interests, noted by the Executive Board in 2000, provide a basis for the organization's relationship with the private sector. These Guidelines have been used by IBFAN and other NGOs to stop inappropriate funding and influence of bodies such as the Codex Trust.

"Transparent and efficient safeguards against conflicts of interest are decisive to the future of WHO and international health policy, and will be a defining issue for the term of WHO Director-General Jong-wook Lee," concludes Mulvey.

###