Online Public Consultation on the

Draft WHO Guideline on Fiscal Policies

to promote Healthy Diets

Background

In current food environments, energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods are readily available, heavily marketed and relatively cheap. Consumers are challenged to make healthy and affordable food-related decisions that are consistent with a healthy diet. Affordability of food is a key determinant of the food environment and changes in price influence consumer demand for many foods and beverages. Fiscal measures, including both taxation and subsidies have long been recognized as a viable policy option to promote healthy diets. Despite some progress in implementing fiscal measures, governments continue to face challenges in their attempts to develop such measures.

To support Member States in establishing enabling food environments to promote healthy diets and improve nutrition, the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed evidence-informed guidelines on the food environment, including fiscal policies. 

The recommendations of the draft guideline on fiscal policies to promote healthy diets were formulated based on analyses of published scientific studies on the impact of taxation of foods and sugar-sweetened beverages, on the impact of a subset of food subsidies with the primary intention to change consumer behaviour by lowering prices of targeted foods, as well as of published literature on factors impacting the implementation of food and beverages taxes and subsidies.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is now inviting Member States and all relevant stakeholders to comment on the draft guideline via an online public consultation. To launch the consultation, a webinar will be held on 9 December 2022 which will briefly summarize the WHO guideline development process, the scientific evidence used in the development of the recommendations, and the recommendations and supporting information. 

FURTHER DETAILS WILL BE PROVIDED AT THE LAUNCH EVENT ON 9 DECEMBER 2022:

Zoom webinar
When: December 9, 2022 12:00 PM (CET)
Topic: LAUNCH EVENT FOR THE PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON THE DRAFT WHO GUIDELINE FISCAL POLICIES TO PROMOTE HEALTHY DIETS

Participation is subject to registration. Kindly register in advance here 
https://who.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KpYFvnWmQLyPec6JnP3HXw

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with further information about joining the webinar.

Should you not be able to attend the webinar, please check out the following webpage for further details:  https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/public-consultation-on-the-draft-guideline-fiscal-policies-to-promote-healthy-diets

Deadline for providing comments: 3 February 2023