Representatives of several Ibero-American governments agreed during a forum in Mexico to implement policies favoring exercise in order to halt the growing problem of obesity and overweight among their populations.
Delegates from Mexico, Spain, Chile, Cuba, Uruguay, Guatemala and Belize taking part in the International Forum “Ponte al 100 sobre Balance Energetico” signed the “Declaration of Cancun” after two days during which measures for combating physical inactivity, overweight and obesity were presented and discussed.
In signing the document the representatives committed themselves to study “the possibility of strengthening at an institutional level all those initiatives that prioritize activity and physical education in order to prevent overweight and obesity.”
“Governments must undertake the role of director and guide in the design, application, oversight and evaluation of inclusive, specific and intersecting public policies and strategies in the medium and long term that will provide the tools necessary to raise awareness and promote a general understanding about adopting healthy lifestyle habits,” the document says.
This is, it adds, because governments are “aware that physical inactivity plays a determining role, not only in the pandemic of overweight and obesity, but in all non-contagious illnesses that strike national economies in their educational and public health systems.”
The document was presented moments before the closure of the two-day forum at the seaside resort of Cancun, and was attended by government and institutional representatives as well as by specialists in the field of obesity and overweight from various parts of the world.
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