Canada, Mexico, and the United States Join Efforts to Address Childhood Obesity in North America

May 25, 2016 (GENEVA)—Top health officials from Canada, Mexico, and the United States met today at the World Health Assembly to discuss their trilateral commitment to addressing childhood obesity. The three countries have been sharing information on innovative policy and programming approaches, including implementing a broad range of interventions that incorporate multisectoral partnerships, social mobilization, citizen engagement, community-based outreach, and the built environment to promote healthy lifestyles, since 2014.

The officials—Dr. Gregory Taylor, Public Health Agency of Canada; Dr. Pablo Kuri, Secretariat of Health of Mexico; and Dr. Karen DeSalvo, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—noted that sharing best practices and lessons learned across borders can inform respective national initiatives.

Moving forward, the three countries plan to explore opportunities to leverage their joint strengths in areas such as surveillance, pilot projects with mobile technologies, and partnership across sectors.