CONTRIBUTORS
Shukri Mohamed
Associate Research Scientist
Charity Chao Shete
Communications Officer
Nicholas Okapu Etyang
Policy Engagement Manager
Contributors: Nicholas Okapu Etyang, Shukri Mohamed, Charity Chao Shete
Globally, around 41 million people die due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) which accounts for more than 75% of global deaths. Between 2000 and 2019, the proportion of overall deaths due to NCDs in the WHO African region increased from 24.2 to 37.1%. With these numbers, Africa is currently witnessing an epidemiological shift, resulting in more and more countries on the continent declaring NCDs a public health concern. Unfortunately, this surge is straining an already overburdened healthcare system on the continent. The combination of increasing prevalence and limited resources creates an urgent need for strategic interventions that are both effective and sustainable within local contexts to counteract the drivers of such burden. It is against this backdrop that the East Africa Regional Policy Dialogue was convened. It brought together stakeholders to develop coordinated approaches to address the growing NCD crisis in the region.
On April 8-9, 2025, Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNi), in collaboration with the African Population and Health Research Center(APHRC) and the Ministry of Health, Kenya, convened stakeholders from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania in an effort to initiate collaborative action across the region. The dialogue presented an opportunity to analyse the research provided by APHRC and ATNi to understand the local epidemiology and evidence-based interventions and apply multi-stakeholder approaches to address the NCD burden. The workshop, which attracted stakeholders across different sectors such as government, academia, civil society organizations, and the development sector, also presented a platform for the three nations to look outward towards success stories like Chile, South Africa, and Ghana and draw lessons from them in strengthening market and nutrition policies. Conversely, stakeholders also analysed the factors hindering the adoption of effective nutrition and marketing policies within the region. Top of the list were countries lagging in developing and implementing nutrition-related policies, with many countries failing to complete the development of their nutrient profile models, which would be a precursor to front-of-pack labelling, food procurement regulations, marketing restrictions on unhealthy foods targeted at children, and national dietary campaigns.
Similar to understanding APHRC’s research, stakeholders also had an opportunity to learn about ATNi’s East Africa market assessment. This comprehensive evaluation analyzed the 30 largest food and beverage companies in Kenya and Tanzania across 8 domains. The assessment examined corporate profiles, evaluating company practices such as nutrition improvement targets, policies on marketing to children, and workforce nutrition support, as well as product-level information that reveals what companies actually do, not just what they claim. While informal markets were excluded, products were rigorously assessed using multiple nutrient profiling models, including the HSR model, the WHO AFRO Model, and the Kenya Nutrient Profile Model (KNPM).
The findings showed that 90% of the evaluated products fail to meet the threshold for healthy products according to the newly introduced KNPM and would require warning labels under recently established guidelines. These findings highlight serious concerns about the nutritional quality of packaged foods available to consumers and demonstrate the urgent need for stronger regulations. However, this is an opportunity for manufacturers to start reformulating their products to reduce the nutrients of concern to acceptable limits. While these numbers may be alarming, the dialogue was about creating momentum to deal with the challenges presented. As such, the workshop outcomes included providing practical recommendations on the way forward. Key recommendations from the conversations were;
- Promote country ownership using local resources, adequate chronic disease healthcare financing, and context-appropriate community-based initiatives to ensure sustainability
- Strengthen the integration of nutrition into public finance through dedicated budget allocations and expenditure frameworks.
- Initiate dialogue with agri-food investors to promote affordable, nutrition-oriented investments, improving consumer access to healthy options
- Provide targeted incentives to private enterprises offering nutritious products at accessible price points
- Implement health-oriented fiscal measures, including taxation of unhealthy products, to shift market incentives
- Develop robust verification and monitoring systems, ensuring transparency and compliance with fiscal policies
- Direct health tax proceeds toward developing, producing, and distributing healthier food alternatives
- Leverage existing government social protection programs as nutrition investment platforms, particularly for vulnerable populations
- Enhance packaging and presentation of healthier foods to increase market visibility and consumer adoption
In sum, the conversations from the workshop reflect a complex landscape of NCDs in the East African Region. It revealed the interconnected nature of the challenges the region is facing. Participants highlighted how economic development, changing lifestyles, urbanization, and global food system influences have transformed traditional diets and physical activity patterns throughout the region. Nevertheless, there is a promising trend of increased efforts to ensure our markets and food environment move towards a healthier trajectory. This has been witnessed in Kenya’s journey to the Kenya Nutrient Profiling Model (KNPM), which represents a significant milestone in establishing evidence-based standards for evaluating food products. Kenya’s process involved multi-sectoral collaboration between government agencies, research institutions, civil society organizations, and international partners to develop contextually appropriate nutritional standards.
Additionally, the region is seeing renewed commitment to better food and nutrition policies, including front-of-package labeling initiatives, marketing restrictions for unhealthy foods targeting children, and efforts to integrate nutrition considerations into broader public health frameworks. These policy innovations demonstrate growing recognition among policymakers that addressing NCDs requires comprehensive regulatory approaches that go beyond individual behavior change to reshape the food environment itself.
Read more about the East Africa Market Assessment
Read about the Ministry of Health, Kenya’s Commitment to Spearheading Regional Nutrition Policy Reforms
The event, as covered in the media.