In August this year, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants were officially awarded through the Global Alliance of Chronic Disease (GACD) funding round, focused on scaling up interventions to reduce the burden of diabetes and hypertension.
The George Institute was awarded funding in partnership with Fiji National University, Deakin University and the University of Sydney for a project titled “Scaling-up food policy interventions to reduce non-communicable diseases in the Pacific Islands”. This work builds on previous work done by chief investigator, Jacqui Webster, on salt reduction in Fiji and Samoa.
The five year project aims to take a comprehensive, empirical approach to understanding and strengthening the food policy making process, with an emphasis on implementing at scale the best possible policies to improve food environments in the Pacific.
An initial meeting was held for this grant at the end of August in Suva, Fiji with collaborators from Fiji National University, Deakin, University of Sydney and the Ministry of Health Fiji and Samoa.