How the World's Foremost Health Group has Allied with Big Food Emily Allen - Daily Mail UK
go to original October 19, 2012

The World Health Organization, which bills itself as 'impartial', has been taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the fast-food industry to help fill black holes in its budget to tackle obesity, it has emerged.

WHO works on behalf of 194 nations to tackle disease like malaria and AIDS but also battle on-going problems like diabetes and heart disease caused by chronic problems like obesity.

But now it has emerged that WHO's regional office, which is tasked with fighting obesity in places like  Mexico which has the world's highest rate of obese and overweight adults, has been taking hand-outs from the fast-food industry.

The Pan American Health Organisation has also been relying on the food and beverage industry for advice on how to fight obesity.

Accepting industry funding goes against WHO's worldwide policies.

The Pan American office - known as PAHO, based in Washington - has so far accepted $50,000 from Coca-Cola, the world's largest beverage company, $150,000 from Nestle, the world's largest food company, and $150,000 from Unilever, whose brands include Ben & Jerry's ice cream and Popsicles.

The cash donations were described by Irene Klinger, a senior adviser for partnerships in PAHO, as 'a new way of doing business.' However, she insisted WHO is careful to maintain control of its policy decisions.

WHO is increasingly relying on 'partnerships' with the industry, instead of maintaining neutrality like it always has done, to fill holes in its budget. However, it still refuses to partner with the tobacco industry.

Since 2010 WHO has cut its own funding for chronic disease programs by 20 per cent. These diseases cause 63 per cent of premature deaths worldwide, but the WHO department in charge of fighting them receives just six percent of the UN's budget.

Boyd Swinburn, an Australian professor and longtime member of WHO's nutrition advisory committees, said: 'WHO is getting hijacked. They're cash-strapped, and they're bringing the private sector in. That's very dangerous.'

However, Jorge Casimiro, Coca-Cola's director of international government relations and public affairs, said: 'It's about the convergence of the interests. What we're trying to say is we're ready to take action. We're companies who want to do this. We're ready to go.'

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola has also placed a top official on the steering board for WHO's Pan American Forum for Action on Non-Communicable Diseases, a group that helps determine how WHO fights obesity in Mexico.

WHO's Geneva headquarters and five other regional offices have been stopped from accepting money from the food and soda industries, among others.

Spokesman Gregory Härtl said: 'If such conflicts of interest were perceived to exist, or actually existed, this would jeopardize WHO's ability to set globally recognized and respected standards and guidelines.'

It has also emerged that at least two of specially appointed nutrition advisers working on behalf of WHO had direct financial ties to the food industry.

Murray Skeaff, a New Zealand professor, received research money from Unilever, the conglomerate with $60 billion sales last year.

Esté Vorster, a South African professor, advised a sugar association and took travel and 'after hours' money to judge a contest for Nestle. Vorster said she does not participate in discussing the sugar guideline.

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