What is INFORMAS?
INFORMAS (International Network for Food and Obesity / Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) Research, Monitoring and Action Support) is a global network of public-interest organisations and researchers that aims to monitor, benchmark and support public and private sector actions to increase healthy food environments and reduce obesity and NCDs and their related inequalities.
INFORMAS supports the WHO’s Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (2013-2020) and the World Cancer Research Fund International NOURISHING framework.
Who is involved in INFORMAS?
Select a marker to view more about a country
New Zealand
Informas Modules:
- Public Sector
- Private Sector
- Food Composition
- Food Labelling
- Food Promotion
- Food Prices
- Food Retail
- Food Provision
- Food Trade & Investment
Argentina
Informas Modules:
- Food Composition
- Food Labelling
- Food Promotion
- Food Prices
- Food Provision
- Food Trade & Investment
Canada
- Public Sector
- Private Sector
- Food Composition
- Food Labelling
- Food Promotion
- Food Prices
- Food Retail
- Food Trade & Investment
Australia
Informas Modules:
- Public Sector
- Private Sector
- Food Composition
- Food Promotion
- Food Prices
Fiji
Informas Modules:
- Public Sector
- Private Sector
- Food Composition
- Food Labelling
- Food Promotion
- Food Prices
- Food Retail
- Food Provision
- Food Trade & Investment
Vietnam
Costa Rica
Brazil
Gautemala
Informas Modules:
- Public Sector
- Food Composition
- Food Labelling
- Food Promotion
India
Malaysia
Malta
Informas Modules:
- Public Sector
- Food Composition
- Food Promotion
- Food Prices
- Food Retail
- Food Provision
Mexico
Informas Modules:
- Public Sector
- Food Composition
- Food Labelling
- Food Promotion
South Africa
UK
China
Singapore
Thailand
Informas Modules:
- Public Sector
- Private Sector
- Food Composition
- Food Labelling
- Food Promotion
- Food Prices
- Food Trade & Investment
Central America and Panama (CIIPEC-INCAP)
Informas Modules:
- Public Sector
- Food Composition
- Food Labelling
- Food Promotion
- Food Retail
Iran
Overview
The management structure of the network consists of an over-arching Secretariat, Council and an advisory group, as well as data collection, data management and knowledge exchange components.
The INFORMAS Council
This Council consists of module leaders, participating country representatives, food policy experts and Secretariat representatives. The INFORMAS Council makes the policy, budget and strategic decisions.
The World Obesity Federation (WOF) – Policy and Prevention (formerly The International Obesity Taskforce (IOTF) Scientific Advisory Council) serves as an advisory board to INFORMAS, providing peer review, linkages, support, and strategic advice.
The INFORMAS Secretariat
The Secretariat provides overall coordination, including central collation and management of data from the various modules. The Secretariat, in conjunction with collaborative groups in INFORMAS, is conducting data analyses and publication of reports, league tables, and journal articles. The Secretariat is hosted by the University of Auckland.
INFORMAS Country Teams
Consists of NGOs and research groups within a country who are participating in INFORMAS. Country teams collate existing country-level data (if available) and collect new country-level data related to each module. These data will be used within that country as well as being submitted and stored in a central, global database.
INFORMAS Module Leaders
Module Leaders are responsible for the coordination of monitoring activities for each of the modules of INFORMAS. The research group managing each module develops standardised protocols for data collection, coordinates the data collection processes, and oversees the data management related to that module.
The INFORMAS Knowledge Exchange Team
Led by WOF and consists of several large, global public-interest NGOs (including Consumers International, World Cancer Research Fund, and National Heart Forum). It will be responsible for external communication and advocacy support for INFORMAS. This will include communications of findings, raising the awareness of publications, individual country feedback and stimulating advocacy groups.
Objectives
The specific objectives of INFORMAS are to:
- Develop a global network of public-interest organisations and research groups to monitor, benchmark and support efforts to create healthy food environments and reduce obesity and NCDs and their related inequalities
- Collect, collate and analyse data on public and private sector policies and actions, food environments, population diets, obesity and NCDs
- Compare and communicate the progress on improving food environments against good practice benchmarks, between countries and over time
- Use the results to strengthen public health efforts, particularly by supporting the translation of relevant evidence into public and private sector actions.
It is expected that the main outcomes of INFORMAS will be:
- Improved population health:
- healthier food environments
- healthier diets
- reduced obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs)
- reduced inequalities (environments, diets, obesity and NCDs)
- Improved food systems:
- more responsive to nutrition
- health and equity
- greater food sovereignty
- Increased engagement of relevant actors:
- increased engagement of civil society actors, including the scientific community, with governments and the private sector, towards common goals of healthier food environments
- higher levels of accountability for the public and private sectors regarding food environments
- more effective efforts of main actors to create healthy food environments and reduce obesity and NCDs
Funding & Support
Our Funders
- The International Research Development Centre
- The Health Research Council of New Zealand
Applying for funding
INFORMAS is a global network of public-interest organisations and researchers and relies on external funding to support its projects. Anyone who is interested can get involved in INFORMAS, however, we cannot fund research projects. We are happy to assist in grant writing if there are funding opportunities where the INFORMAS team can help. Please contact us for further information.
Getting Involved
Thirty-seven countries are actively doing food environment surveys of at least one of the INFORMAS modules. We would like to link with researchers in any countries who want to measure food policies and environments. We are also happy to assist in grant writing if there are funding opportunities where the INFORMAS team can help. Please contact us for further information. You can download sample protocols and find more information about how to use them here