Summary report on the expert meeting on protecting children from the harmful impact of food marketing in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, with a focus on digital marketing
Publication date: 2024
To support the Member States of the Region to strengthen their actions to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing, WHO held an expert meeting on 6 and 7 December 2023 in Cairo, Egypt. The main objectives of the meeting were to update participating country representatives on the new guidance, tools, and other resources to support action to protect children from harmful food marketing; review the existing guidance and tools, with a particular focus on digital marketing, and identify any necessary adaptation to the Regional context; exchange country experience on policy action on food marketing and success stories and challenges faced; and identify country support needs from WHO and/or other partners, and opportunities for country collaboration for mutual support.
Summary report on the meeting on nutrition in emergencies in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
Publication date: 2024
A meeting on nutrition in emergencies was organized by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean n Amman, Jordan, on 20–21 November 2023. The main objectives of the meeting were to: raise awareness and promote understanding among Member States of the available guidance, tools and resources to support nutrition in different types of emergency contexts; exchange country experience on protecting and promoting nutrition in emergency contexts and share lessons from this experience; and identify country support needs from WHO and/or other partners, and opportunities for country collaboration for mutual support.
Summary report on the elimination of trans fatty acids in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
Publication date: 2021
The workshop aimed to provide countries with technical guidance from WHO and Resolve to Save Lives (an initiative of the global public health organization Vital Strategies). Its specific objectives were to: identify progress, enablers and barriers to eliminating trans fatty acids in countries; build capacity and relationships with partners working on trans fatty acid regulations in the Region; facilitate cross-regional learning amongst nutrition focal points, experts and stakeholders; and identify specific support needs and create follow-up plans to provide technical support.
FAO/WHO multi-stakeholder policy workshop: leveraging food systems to combat obesity in the Near East and North Africa Region
Publication date: 2019
A food systems approach is acknowledged to be key to efforts to combat obesity and eliminate other forms of malnutrition in the countries of FAO’s Near East and North Africa Region and WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region. This report describes the content and outcomes of the two-day regional multi-stakeholder consultation workshop, entitled Leveraging Food Systems to Combat Obesity in the Near East and North Africa Region. The workshop brought together a range of stakeholders to discuss food systems for healthy and sustainable diets.
Summary report on the Regional workshop on healthy diet with a focus on trans-fatty acid elimination
Publication date: 2019
A regional workshop on healthy diet with a focus on trans-fatty acid elimination was organized by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. The workshop shared WHO policies and strategies on eliminating trans-fatty acids and reducing salt, fat and free sugar intakes and the success stories and progress achieved at the global and regional levels. It also identified challenges and possible solutions to reduce trans-fatty acid, salt, fat and sugar intakes and countries were able to develop/review their national plans for implementing healthy diet and nutrition strategies.
Tackling obesity in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
Publication date: 2019
This article summarizes the objectives, discussions and recommendations of the Regional meeting on tackling obesity in the Eastern Mediterranean Region with more focus on healthy diet, that was held in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates on 26 November 2018. The aim of the regional meeting was to present the regional framework for action on obesity prevention (2019–2023) and discuss the promotion of its implementation.
Summary report on the Regional meeting to standardize and update food composition tables, reflecting sugar, trans fat, saturated fat and salt contents
Publication date: 2016
The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean organized a regional meeting to standardize and update food composition tables in the Region, reflecting sugar, trans fat, saturated fat and salt contents. The meeting brought together participants from six countries in the Region, who had shown progress on compiling food composition data. The meeting aimed at reviewing the current regional food composition tables, identifying gaps in data and information and sensitizing on international standards for food composition tables.
Summary report on the Training workshop on the treatment of severe cases of acute malnutrition for countries in emergencies
Publication date: 2016
A training workshop on treatment of severe cases of acute malnutrition for countries in emergencies was organized by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean jointly with Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination, Pakistan. The main aim of the workshop was to build capacity of a regional core team to spearhead further training in the management of severe acute malnutrition across the Region with special emphasis on high burden countries such as Afghanistan, Djibouti, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Summary report on the Training workshop on the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative for policy-makers in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
Publication date: 2016
The training workshop on the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative for policy-makers and decision-makers was organized by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. The main goal of the training was to further support implementation of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative, a global effort to implement practices that protect, promote and support breastfeeding, through training of policy- and decision-makers from ministries of health.
Summary report on the Technical consultation on reducing sugar intake in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
Publication date: 2015
The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean organized a technical consultation on reducing sugar intake in the Eastern Mediterranean. The objectives of the technical consultation were to review the levels, patterns and sources of sugar consumption in countries of the Region and to develop a regional roadmap to help countries to take action on reducing sugar intake in accordance with WHO guidelines on sugar intake in adults and children through identifying key cost-effective and strategic interventions and priority actions.
Summary report on the Intercountry meeting on nutrition
Publication date: 2015
To address nutrition situation in countries of the Region and identify key challenges, the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean held an intercountry meeting on nutrition. The meeting aimed at reviewing the regional and national nutrition strategies and policies and country commitments with regard to the Second International Conference on Nutrition recommendations. It also identified needs for technical support as well as areas where the regional strategy needs to be updated. Expected outcomes of the meeting were roadmaps for implementing the Second International Conference on Nutrition recommendations and for further review and updating of the regional nutrition strategy.
Summary report on the Consultation on development of a draft regional nutrient profiling module
Publication date: 2015
The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean organized a consultation to develop a regional nutrient profile model based on the regional nutrient profile model that is currently being finalized for the WHO European Region. The main objective of the consultation was to develop both a draft regional nutrient profile model for marketing foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children and an outline for piloting the model in one of the regional countries.
Summary report on the Meeting of nutrition focal points in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
Publication date: 2014
The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean held an intercountry workshop on nutrition. Participants reviewed the current nutrition situation in all Member States and progress achieved during the past decade and nutrition focal points were oriented on recent global and regional nutrition related initiatives. The meeting also served as a platform to review countries’ progress in setting up national monitoring and evaluation systems.
Summary report on the Intercountry meeting for the development of an action plan for the implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes
Publication date: 2014
The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean conducted an intercountry meeting for the development of an action plan for the implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes. During the meeting, the current regional situation concerning the implementation of the Code of Marketing for Breast-milk Substitutes was reviewed, key challenges and recommend actions were identified in order to review and finalize a regional roadmap and a framework for national action plans for the implementation of the Code.
Summary report on the Regional workshop on salt and fat reduction and setting up protocol for measuring salt and fat intake and content in food
Publication date: 2014
In follow-up to a series of consultations and workshops which aimed at developing plans to implement the core set of interventions in the "Regional Framework for Action”, including salt and fat reduction intake, a workshop on salt and fat reduction was organized by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. The workshop was organized and designed to provide guidance on implementing reductions in both fat and salt intakes and on monitoring of salt intake.
Summary report on the Technical workshop on salt and fat intake reduction
Publication date: 2013
The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean held a technical consultation on salt and fat intake reduction. The overall objective of the workshop was to support countries in developing national action plans on salt and fat intake reduction. The expected outcome of the workshop was the identification of action areas for the implementation of salt and fat intake reduction strategies for countries of the Region.
Report on the Consultation on developing strategic directions for salt and fat reduction in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
Publication date: 2012
A technical consultation on developing strategic directions for salt and fat reduction was organized by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. The purpose of the consultation was to develop a roadmap and action plans for countries of the Region to implement “best buys” related to health and dietary changes through reducing salt intake and replacing trans fatty acids with polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Report on the Joint WHO/Flour Fortification Initiative harmonization workshop for wheat and maize flour fortification
Publication date: 2012
The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean in collaboration with the Flour Fortification Initiative and other partners organized a technical workshop for wheat and maize flour fortification. This report provides a summary of presentations delivered during the workshop as well as a set of recommendations which are divided into two parts: Part A comprises regional recommendations targeting countries which have adopted flour fortification, and Part B contains specific recommendations for Afghanistan, Libya and Pakistan.
Report on the Regional workshop on developing plans of action for promotion of physical activity and prevention and control of obesity
Publication date: 2011
A workshop on developing national plans of action for promotion of physical activity and prevention and control of obesity was organized by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. As an outcome of the workshop, all participating countries devised plans of action according to their national nutrition situation and needs.
Report on the first regional scientific conference on nutrition, disability and mental health
Publication date: 2011
The first regional conference in nutrition, disability and mental health was organized jointly by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean and the Amman Arab University. The main objective of the conference was to come up with a set of recommendations to increase the awareness on the importance of best health and nutrition practices for promotion of optimal mental health and prevention of disabilities.
Report on the first and second meetings of the regional advisory committee on nutrition
Publication date: 2010
The first meeting of the WHO Regional Advisory Committee on Nutrition was held at the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. During the meeting, situation reports were given from the Region and lessons learned were shared. Next steps and strategic priorities were identified and the process for developing the regional nutrition strategy was agreed upon. The second meeting was held immediately following the launch of the draft regional nutrition strategy. The meeting revolved around discussing next steps and way forward for implementing the nutrition strategy.
Report on the technical consultation to establish a regional nutrition surveillance system with focus on micronutrient malnutrition
Publication date: 2010
The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean held a technical consultation to establish a regional surveillance system with focus on micronutrient malnutrition. The overall objective of the consultation was to strengthen the regional nutrition monitoring and evaluation system. The report includes a way forward for countries to establish and implement a functioning nutrition surveillance system.