Football to help end malnutrition, obesity in children

Football associations, corporations and foundations are collaborating in a campaign to end malnutrition and obesity among children in Asia.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), World Vision, DSM, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and the Asian Football Development Project have launched the One Goal partnership with a vision of ensuring ‘Nutrition for Every Child’ in Asia.

“While Asia is home to more than half of the world’s malnourished children, the continent’s burgeoning economies are faced with [another] challenge affecting its children – obesity,” said Stefan Germann, executive director of One Goal, in a press release.

“One Goal bring together powerful forces in the region – football, development and corporate expertise – to address this issue and ensure children eat, live and play right.”

Asia is home to close to 578 million of the one billion malnourished people around the world. Some 100 million of the 165 million children globally who are stunted due to chronic undernutrition are Asian. The region also faces a growing challenge with obesity – 7.7 percent of school-age children are expected to be overweight in 2015 in ASEAN countries, an explosion from 1.8 percent in 1990. Obesity and poor nutrition practices also expose these same children to a higher likelihood of contracting noncommunicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

The One Goal campaign will seek to transform child nutrition in Asia by engaging players, fans and football lovers to become ambassadors for good nutritional practices, and engage and encourage governments to invest more in helping children access nutritious foods so they can grow up to be champions – both on and off the field.

“The vision of the One Goal campaign is to unite a diverse range of audiences under the banner of football and serve them messages about good nutrition, especially children,” said Tong Ngan Liew, CEO, World Vision Malaysia, at the 12^th International Congress on Obesity.

Malaysia is one of the first countries to launch One Goal nationally. “We are looking to ignite a social movement that will transform child nutrition in the region, helping more children survive and thrive,” he said.