An interministerial meeting devoted to preparations for the National Health Prevention Year 2026 was held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Health. The meeting was initiated and organized at the invitation of Monika Wielichowska, Deputy Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland.
The meeting focused on planning actions aimed at reducing obesity and brought together representatives of public administration, the scientific community, and civil society. The discussion was strategic in nature and concerned a long-term, systemic approach to one of the most serious public health challenges in Poland.
Obesity is a problem not only of a medical nature, but also a social and economic one, affecting the vast majority of Polish families. Poland is among the European countries with one of the fastest rates of weight gain among children, clearly illustrating the scale of the challenge and the urgent need for coordinated, system-level action.
During the meeting, a clear readiness and political will emerged to ensure that actions in the area of obesity reduction are:
- structured and clearly targeted,
- embedded within a shared strategic framework,
- implemented through interministerial cooperation,
- based on scientific evidence and practical experience.
For the Stop Obesity Partnership, the meeting marked an important milestone. The strategic assumptions for obesity reduction in Poland developed by the Partnership—resulting from more than one hundred meetings and consultations with representatives of central and local government, the scientific community, civil society, and business—were presented to a broad group of decision-makers.
The presented strategy is the outcome of two years of intensive work, including an analysis of solutions implemented in more than a dozen countries, a review of childhood obesity prevention programmes with proven scientific effectiveness from various parts of the world, and an in-depth analysis of Polish experiences. The document offers a comprehensive approach to the problem, covering prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of obesity as a disease.
An important element of the proposed approach is its systemic perspective—viewing obesity in the context of the functioning of the entire social ecosystem and the obesogenic environment that fosters the development of the disease. This perspective allows for the identification of actions and instruments requiring streamlining, modification, implementation, as well as improved coordination and communication.
The Stop Obesity Partnership welcomes the fact that the presented recommendations may serve as the basis for solutions that could be implemented starting in 2026, and that the Partnership itself is now a partner of policymakers in the process of designing public policies in this area.
Participants expressed their willingness to continue dialogue and further cooperation. There is a shared belief that the National Health Prevention Year 2026 can genuinely contribute to building an effective, long-term strategy for obesity reduction in Poland.
The meeting was attended, among others, by:
- Monika Wielichowska – Deputy Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland
- Representatives of the Stop Obesity Partnership: Dr. Małgorzata Gałązka-Sobotka, Marta Pawłowska
- Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda – Minister of Health
- Jakub Rutnicki – Minister of Sport and Tourism
- Piotr Borys – Ministry of Sport and Tourism
- Katarzyna Kacperczyk – Ministry of Health
- Tomasz Lewandowski – Ministry of Health
- Katarzyna Lubnauer – Ministry of National Education
- Jakub Szulc – Deputy President of the National Health Fund
- Prof. Marzena Dominiak – Wrocław Medical University of the Silesian Piasts
- Ewa Godlewska – FLO – Foundation for the Treatment of Obesity
- Ewa Chodakowska