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This year marked a turning point for global action on obesity.

Throughout 2025, World Obesity worked across multilateral, regional and national arenas to ensure obesity remained at the centre of global health and development debates. From major UN processes to regional coalitions and lived-experience leadership, the organisation helped strengthen partnerships and drive a unified call for multisectoral action. 

Setting the stage: From Kigali to Geneva

World Obesity began the year at the Global NCD Alliance Forum in Kigali, co-hosting sessions that elevated obesity within broader NCD discussions. Conversations focused on multisectoral action, financing gaps and the double burden of malnutrition in urban LMICs, while emphasising the meaningful involvement of people with lived experience. At World Obesity’s booth, advocates shared priorities for governments ahead of the High-Level Meeting - calling for root-cause action, integrated policies and full implementation of WHO recommendations.

Accelerating Momentum Ahead of the UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs

As UN Member States negotiated the Political Declaration that will guide global action on noncommunicable diseases over the next several years, World Obesity underscored that progress would be impossible without urgent action on obesity. With more than one billion people already affected - and projections reaching up to four billion by 2035 for overweight and obesity - we called for coordinated multisectoral action rooted in primary healthcare and structural change.

To support this call, we launched the global For Half of Humanity: Four Billion Reasons We Need Action on Obesity campaign. The campaign highlighted the economic and social costs of inaction, emphasised proven solutions such as WHO Best Buys and emerging pharmacological therapies, and called for a shift from individual responsibility narratives to systemic accountability. Read our pieces in and , and insightful blog posts from our Members in Cameroon, the Caribbean, and Lived Experience advocate, Stephen Ogweno.

Converging Global Leadership: The 2025 Global Obesity Forum

A major milestone of the year was the Global Obesity Forum (GOF) in New York, co-hosted with WHO and UNICEF ahead of the UN High-Level Meeting at UNGA 80. Bringing together ministers, UN leaders, researchers, youth and lived experience advocates, the Forum created a rare space for multisectoral dialogue and shared purpose. Demand exceeded capacity, underscoring the growing political momentum for coordinated global action on obesity.

Lived Experience at the centre: From Málaga to the UN stage

Lived experience shaped World Obesity’s advocacy throughout the year. The journey began at ECO 2025 in Málaga, where advocates took part in dedicated training to strengthen their role in policy dialogue, framing, and systems-level change. This foundation carried into WHA78, where lived-experience voices joined our delegation in Geneva, helping ground discussions on equity, stigma and structural determinants.

Their leadership took centre stage during the High-Level Meeting week in New York. At the Global Obesity Forum, lived-experience advocates helped steer conversations - with Ogweno Stephen moderating ministerial panels and contributing to the Forum’s call to move from urgency to unity. Their presence across UNGA events reframed obesity as a chronic disease and an equity challenge, emphasising that lived experience is not anecdote but evidence, and that meaningful progress demands person-centred, multisectoral action.

This year’s arc - from Málaga to Geneva to New York - demonstrated that people with lived experience are not just participants but co-leaders in shaping global obesity responses, ensuring policy is anchored in dignity, rights and real-world realities.

National Action and Local Leadership

Momentum around national-level responses to obesity was further strengthened through World Obesity's co-hosting of the UN Inter-Agency Task Force Awards Ceremony in New York. The awards recognised government and civil society efforts advancing innovative, people-centred approaches to obesity and NCD prevention - demonstrating that meaningful progress depends as much on national leadership as on global commitment.

Advancing Evidence and Policy Leadership

World Obesity continued to strengthen the evidence base for action on obesity, contributing to key global publications and working alongside partners across the wider NCD community. This included inputs to and World Obesity’s own which highlights the economic value of comprehensive obesity strategies.

We also helped advance the broader NCD agenda through collaboration with the cardiovascular and liver communities. This included contributions to the World Heart Report 2025: Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease, which this year incorporated a strengthened focus on obesity, as well as a guest blog on obesity and liver health highlighting the shared determinants and opportunities for aligned advocacy across NCDs. These cross-sector efforts reinforced the message that addressing obesity is essential to progress across the full spectrum of noncommunicable diseases.

Looking Ahead

As global attention turns to the 2027 UN High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage, we will focus on ensuring obesity is fully integrated into UHC agendas - championing lived-experience leadership, strengthening national implementation through MAPPS II, and advancing person-centred, stigma-free care within health systems. With WHO’s landmark GLP-1 guidelines marking a new chapter in treatment and equity conversations, we will continue working with governments and partners to turn evidence into action for a fairer, healthier future.