But not all political commitment comes easily or quickly. Sometimes, momentum is built over smaller, symbolic steps. France’s experience shows how even modest early steps can build momentum towards obesity prevention and management. Dr Martine Laville, Professor emeritus and hospital practitioner at Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, explained that the country’s first national roadmap for obesity, launched in 2010, made a critical move by establishing multidisciplinary centres of excellence—bringing long-overdue visibility to obesity treatment. Since then, these centres have formed a national network offering more coordinated care to people living with obesity. It was an important beginning, she noted, but one that still falls short of what is needed: recognition of obesity as a chronic disease.

The lack of official disease recognition remains a key barrier for change, argued Laville, as governments will lack the incentive to prioritise reforms that integrate obesity into primary health care pathways. Without official disease recognition, people living with obesity will continue to face stigma and lack of access to the prevention and management services they need. 

Translating commitments into coordinated action across systems, sectors and levels of government is what keeps momentum alive. While global frameworks like the WHO Acceleration Plan on Obesity offer the roadmap, meaningful change depends on how these recommendations are adapted, implemented and owned at every level—from national ministries to provinces, cities and individual communities. As Dr Celletti from the World Health Organisation, noted, “It’s in the nitty gritty things that we start to see real movement,” where decisions about who leads, who funds, and who delivers are tailored to the context and coordinated across sectors.

One size does not fit all, she emphasised. Effective action means designing policies around the specific gaps, opportunities and actors within each national and subnational setting. That includes listening closely to what works at the local level and building solutions from the ground up. According to Dr Celletti, this kind of tailored design is what brings sectors together. It creates space for shared ownership, aligns priorities across ministries and communities, and turns high-level strategies into policies that people value and support.

Francesca Celletti, WHO, during the panel discussion

Dr Celletti also cited the example of Mauritius as a clear example of this approach. “When the government introduced school nutrition policies, it moved beyond education reform to engage the agriculture ministry—ensuring school meals were locally and sustainably sourced.” What began as a health intervention became a cross-sector initiative that was nationally coordinated but locally delivered.

"It’s not about copying and pasting solutions,” she added, “it’s about designing together with a clear target from the start.” She said that change often begins small—at schools, in municipalities or through pilot programmes—but with the right alignment and support, it can be scaled nationally. Political will is not just necessary at the outset; it is fortified through practice. When interventions are jointly designed, locally delivered and nationally supported, they reinforce commitment and engagement across all levels of government. Small, successful actions help strengthen accountability, elevate visibility, and embed obesity as a sustained political priority.