The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are supporting the Government of Mauritius in implementing a five-year Obesity Action Acceleration Roadmap, running from 2025 to 2030. Launched recently, the roadmap aims to reduce obesity prevalence among Mauritians by 5% by 2030, aligning with the World Health Assembly’s extended 2030 global nutrition and noncommunicable disease (NCD) targets.
The roadmap emphasizes five strategic priorities, including targeted prevention and management services at primary health and community levels, promoting behavior change through increased physical activity and healthy diets, limiting the marketing of unhealthy foods, and boosting local agriculture to improve access to nutritious options. These strategies were developed in consultation with stakeholders across multiple sectors to ensure a comprehensive, nationwide approach.
Mauritius faces significant challenges in meeting global nutrition targets, as diets increasingly rely on refined carbohydrates, sugars, and ultra-processed foods. Data gaps—particularly for children under five—and reliance on paper-based information systems continue to limit effective monitoring. In response, the government has already introduced measures such as doubling taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, strengthening school health programs, enforcing regulations on food sales in educational institutions, implementing price controls on healthier staple foods like wheat bread, and improving nutrition information systems.
WHO has provided technical and financial support to Mauritius for developing obesity-related policies and strategies. The organization has also facilitated multisectoral capacity-building initiatives, including training health workers on child growth monitoring in Mauritius and Rodrigues and empowering stakeholders with behavioral insights to implement more effective interventions.
Currently, one in three adults aged 25–74 years in Mauritius is living with obesity, significantly burdening public health and contributing to rising rates of NCDs. Nearly 70% of the national health budget is allocated to managing these conditions. WHO and FAO stress that the fight against obesity requires coordinated efforts across health, education, agriculture, commerce, finance, sports, civil society, and the private sector to create an environment conducive to healthier lifestyles for all Mauritians.
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