Uganda (Uganda), Hybrid Event, 16/10/2025 - 20/10/2025
Hand in Hand for Better Foods; Confronting Uganda’s Rising NCD Tide Each World Food Day the global community is invited to imagine healthier, fairer food systems. The FAO’s 2025 call “Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future” is especially timely for Uganda, but it must be reframed through a hard truth: our country is facing a growing epidemic of diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that threatens the health and productivity of entire communities. Unless we centre NCD prevention in the food-systems debate, better foods will remain an aspiration rather than a reality. NCDs primarily cardiovascular disease, diabetes, some cancers and chronic respiratory illness are no longer diseases of wealthier nations. In Uganda recent national data show an alarming shift in risk across the population.
Overweight and obesity among Ugandan adults have risen in recent DHS rounds; overweight among women of reproductive age increased between surveys, and childhood overweight, while still lower than in many middle-income countries, is beginning to rise. These prevalence shifts foreshadow higher burdens of diabetes and heart disease — strains that the health system is already struggling to absorb. World Food Day’s “Hand in Hand” message compels action across sectors. If we are serious about preventing NCDs, here are pragmatic, evidence-based steps Uganda must put into practice now: Reorient agricultural success metrics to include diet quality. Productivity is necessary, but not sufficient. District agricultural plans should monitor production and availability of nutrient-dense foods (fruits, vegetables, legumes, animal-source foods), not only staple yields. Incentives, extension services and subsidies must encourage diverse food systems that nourish as well as feed. Regulate the food environment. Implement stronger front-of-pack labelling, restrict marketing of UPFs to children, and introduce fiscal measures (taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages; targeted subsidies for nutritious foods).
These policy tools are proven to shift purchasing and consumption patterns when combined and enforced. Scale nutrition education with behaviour-change strategies. Information alone fails in unhealthy environments. Combine schools-based curricula, maternal and child health counselling, and community campaigns with practical support — home gardens, school meals with minimum nutrition standards, and community cooking demonstrations using local, affordable ingredients. Strengthen primary care for prevention and early detection. Expand routine screening for hypertension and diabetes through primary clinics and community health workers, and link positive screens promptly to counselling and affordable treatment. Prevention is cheaper and more humane than late-stage care. Protect children from early exposure to UPFs. Policies and programmes must focus on the first 1,000 days: promote exclusive breastfeeding, support appropriate complementary feeding, and limit the availability and marketing of sugary and ultra-processed products aimed at infants and toddlers. Invest in cross-sectoral monitoring and accountability. Create joint nutrition-and-NCD dashboards at district level so agriculture, health, education and trade officials can use the same data to plan and evaluate interventions. These actions have costs but they are modest compared with the long-term fiscal and human costs of an unchecked NCD epidemic. They also offer co-benefits: a shift toward diverse, minimally processed diets reduces diet-related NCDs, improves child development and supports climate-resilient farming. As a nutritionist working in Uganda, I have seen the positive ripple effects when communities and policymakers act together: smallholder diversification, school gardens, and local campaigns can raise dietary diversity quickly when supported by sensible policies.
World Food Day 2025 offers us a moment to move from exhortation to systems change. “Hand in hand” must mean aligning ministries, markets, researchers, civil society and families around one shared objective: to make the healthy choice the easy choice for every Ugandan. If we do, we will not only lower future burdens of diabetes and heart disease we will protect the next generation’s cognitive development, educational attainment and economic prospects. That is the real promise of better foods and a better future. Let us seize it together. Kamara Daniel Nutritionist- Bwindi Community Hospital
