Spain: Smart And Direct Plan To Reduce Childhood Obesity

The Gasol Foundation promotes the development of the 1st Spanish National Strategic Plan for the Reduction of Childhood Obesity together with the Government of Spain

National Strategic Plan to reduce childhood obesity aims to embrace this mission, by empowering and working together with families, teachers, health professionals, companies, third-sector entities, public administrations at all levels, and, of course, children and adolescents themselves to control and reduce the alarming rates of excess weight in Spain. This plan has been promoted by the Spanish government and coordinated by the High Comission against Child Poverty (“Alto Comisionado contra la Pobreza Infantil”) with the Gasol Foundation as a key ally. A national alliance is detailed in the plan, aiming to generate multilevel and cascading actions in different public administrations, scientific sector, third sector, companies and civil society, with a primary aim to achieve, within the next ten years, a reduction of 25% of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in Spain.

National Strategic Plan aims to achieve, within the next ten years, a reduction of 25% of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in the country

The key to achieve this goal is to act in their surroundings, by promoting an ecosystem that promotes healthy lifestyles. The plan addresses six strategic lines:

• generating ecosystems that promote:
  • physical activity
  • healthy diets
  • emotional well-being and sleep quality
• strengthen systems to promote healthy lifestyles
• ensuring health protection of childhood
• creating a cultural shift towards healthier lifestyles

In total, 200 multisectoral actions are proposed in the plan. Regarding, for example, the generation of an ecosystem that promotes physical activity, actions such as ensuring universal economic access to sports, increasing extracurricular physical activity in schools, and using school sports facilities as open spaces are described.

Spain has a plan to reduce childhood obesity by 25% over the next 8 years.

On June 10, Pau Gasol, president of the Gasol Foundation (the foundation of the brothers Pau and whose mission is to prevent childhood obesity) participated in the presentation of the National Strategic Plan for the Reduction of Childhood Obesity.

The Gasol Foundation and the Government of Spain

The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez; the High Commissioner against Child Poverty, Ernesto Gasco; and the co-founder of the Gasol Foundation, Pau Gasol, presented the cross-cutting plan to reduce childhood obesity by 25% by 2030.

• The Gasol Foundation has acted as a strategic ally in the development of the Plan, and its coordination has been carried out by the High Commissioner against Child Poverty. In addition, 15 ministries, 18 scientific institutions, 13 third sector organizations, and 25 associations and federations that have represented the economic sector have participated.
• Spain leads all countries of the European Union in child excess weight: 4 out of 10 girls and boys are living with obesity or overweight. 
• In addition, obesity has doubled in girls and adolescents in the last 20 years.
• The National Strategic Plan for the Reduction of Childhood Obesity adopts a transversal, multilevel and holistic vision to reverse one of the main health challenges of the 21st century.

“This National Strategic Plan for the Reduction of Childhood Obesity represents a before and after in the history of our country and is a turning point for all children and adolescents in Spain”, commented the president of the Gasol Foundation Pau Gasol. “Spain has all the conditions to become a world leader in the prevention of childhood obesity and in the promotion of healthy habits with strategic policies and leading by example.”

About the Gasol Foundation

According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), childhood obesity is a phenomenon that affects 124 million boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 19 throughout the world. Specifically in Spain, 1 in 3 minors between the ages of 8 and 16 is living with overweight or obesity according to the STEPS study by the Gasol Foundation.

Faced with this reality, the foundation was created in 2013 by the brothers Pau and Marc Gasol – NBA players and All-Stars – with the aim of preventing childhood obesity both in Spain and in the US.

With this purpose, the entity, a member of the World Obesity Federation, focuses its efforts on the implementation of programs and initiatives to promote healthy habits – physical activity and sports, healthy eating, sleep, and the emotional well-being of minors and their families – and has become a benchmark center in the fight against this pandemic and in its commitment to scientific research in the child health field.