South Asia Unites to Combat Rising Obesity Rates at a Landmark International Congress in Nepal
Kathmandu, Nepal – A regional conference for doctors on the unique facets of obesity management in the South Asian region was organized by Dr Dina Shrestha, President of the South Asian Obesity Forum, on 22nd February 2025.
Faculty from over 10 countries joined in person for deliberations on the region’s specific solutions for the obesity crisis in these countries. Over 200 registered participants from different countries attended the meeting and engaged in discussions. The congress also provided a platform to review policy and program progress and challenges in scaling up access to nutritious foods, essential nutrition services, and positive nutrition practices in the South Asian region. It focussed on identifying key priority actions and galvanizing momentum and leadership to commit to a call to action to accelerate optimistic outcomes in the field of obesity, in line with the vision statement of the South Asian Obesity Forum.
The South Asia Obesity Forum, is a unique consortium of experts from 8 different South Asian countries, is bound together under the official tagline ‘United Against Obesity.’ This distinct approach sets the forum apart, involving countries like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Maldives, Mauritius, Nepal, Bangladesh, and India. The forum’s vision is to address the challenges of the obesity pandemic and to mitigate its impact in the region through education, research, and advocacy on obesity. The forum has already made significant strides, including 3 editions of its official journal – The Asian Journal of Obesity, 8 publications, and a region-specific SOF declaration.
South Asia faces a paradoxical crisis: while undernutrition remains a persistent concern, obesity rates are rapidly rising, driven by imbalanced diets and physical inactivity. This “double burden” of malnutrition poses significant threats to the region’s public health and economic development. The conference discussed various facets of obesity-related comorbidities and underscored the urgent need for stronger leadership, investments in institutional capacity building, and multi-sector, rights-based approaches to address these challenges.
The inaugural session set the tone for the conference, starting with a press release led by Dr Sanjay Kalra, Vice President of the South Asian Obesity Forum and the release of the next issue of the Asian Journal of Obesity by Dr Nitin Kapoor, Editor in Chief.
Participants left the conference with a renewed sense of urgency and a shared commitment to accelerate progress in improving obesity care for patients in the region. The conference served as a platform for sharing knowledge, building partnerships, and developing concrete action plans to address this critical challenge.
