The World Obesity Federation represents professional members of the scientific, medical and research communities from over 50 regional and national obesity associations. Through their membership they create a global community of organisations dedicated to solving the problems of obesity by ensuring that obesity is recognised as a disease and treated as such.

It is leading the way with World Obesity Day, one of their action initiatives which was established in 2015 as an annual campaign with the goal of stimulating and supporting practical actions that will help people achieve and maintain a healthy weight and reverse the global obesity crisis.

Join us for this important Broadcast with Dr. Olivia Barata Cavalcanti - Director of Science & Programmes at the World Obesity Federation.

Dr Olivia Barata Cavalcanti has over a decade of experience in public health with a special focus on obesity and public-private partnerships to fight non-communicable diseases. In her role as Director of Science and Programmes at the World Obesity, she leads the organisation's training and certification programme, SCOPE, which addresses professional development for obesity care in healthcare systems. She also oversees MAPPS, the organisation’s programme aimed at monitoring obesity prevention and treatment in health systems across the globe. Additionally, Olivia is in charge of scientific knowledge management for the organisation.

She has worked for different international and non-profit organizations in Europe and the United States where she was in responsible for all aspects of design and implementation of different health programmes on diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease for both children and adults with a focus on low-income settings. She also has deep knowledge of and experience with the UN system having worked at UNAIDS in Mozambique, for the US Fund for UNICEF and as a Fellow at the Italian Mission to the UN. Olivia has experience teaching Public Health, Community Health and Research Methods courses in different universities at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

She earned her Doctorate of Public Health degree from CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. She also holds a Master of Public Health and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University. She was born and raised in beautiful Rio de Janeiro and has lived in Rome, New York and Maputo before landing in London.

We find out from Olivia more about The World Obesity Federation and how their work could be beneficial to the International fresh produce sectors to help promote healthier living and increase fresh produce consumption.