Making Healthy Public Policy
Assignment 1: Stakeholder Analysis Essay
Due date: XXXXXXXXXXSunday 19th July 2020
Assessment length: 1500 – 1800 words
Assessment value: 15%
Assessment outline
This essay builds on the work that you did in your group practical where you undertook a preliminary stakeholder assessment for your allocated PHAA Policy.
This is not a group assignment. In this essay you are asked to take the work you began in your group on your nominated PHAA policy and stakeholder analysis and build on this yourself to provide a detailed stakeholder analysis
You should:
· Provide and Introductory paragraph outlining the Policy you are analysing and why stakeholders play an important part of developing and analysing such a policy
· Identify your stakeholders and, explain why these particular people/groups are stakeholders?
· Classify them as primary secondary and key stakeholders with justification for why you have put them in these groups
· Map your stakeholders onto the template you used in the practical session which classifies stakeholders from high to low interest and high to low influence. You may wish to reconsider the importance/influence of some of the stakeholders and change their position in the template.
· Explain why you have placed these stakeholders in their position in the matrix.
· Include a concluding paragraph which summarises the pape
In completing this assignment:
· you should use sub-headings
· use appropriate referencing which is based on either the Vancouver referencing template or the APA referencing template. These are explained in the Li
ary Health Essentials module (on the MyUni dashboard) which you have been asked to complete
Useful Resources
· Centre for Community Health and Development, University of Kansas. 1994 – 2020. Community Toolbox: Section 8. Identifying and Analysing Stakeholders and Their Interests. https:
ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/participation/encouraging-involvement/identify-stakeholders/checklist
20 Napier Close Deakin ACT Australia 2600 – PO Box 319 Curtin ACT Australia 2605
T XXXXXXXXXXF XXXXXXXXXXE XXXXXXXXXX W www.phaa.net.au
Public Health Association of Australia:
Policy-at-a-glance – Prevention and Management of Overweight
and Obesity in Australia Policy
Key message: PHAA will –
1. Advocate that Federal, State and Te
itory governments:
a. Establish overweight and obesity as a national priority;
. Lead an effective approach to tackling this issue;
c. Allocate funding to support development, implementation,
evaluation and research around a national healthy weight plan;
2. Monitor progress on the implementation of these recommendations
and report back to members;
3. Partner with other organisations to jointly influence action for
population prevention of overweight and obesity;
4. Contribute to policy and advisory forums about the promotion of
healthy weigh for children, young people and adults;
5. Inform and mobilise its members in support of this policy.
Summary: Overweight and obesity in Australia is associated with substantial present
and future social, health and economic costs. Despite a large number of
ecommendations cited in reports, strategies and plans over the past 20
years, the prevalence of obesity and overweight in Australia continues to
ise in adults and is high in children. Australia does not have a national
coordinated plan to address this problem. This policy calls on the
governments to establish obesity as national priority and, based on the best
available evidence, which includes a strong focus on improving diets and
levels of physical activity, lead an effective national, integrated, sustained,
multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional approach to tackling this issue.
Audience: Federal, State and Te
itory Governments, policy makers, program managers
and key non-government, community, industry and academic stakeholders
and the Australian public.
Responsibility: PHAA’s Food and Nutrition Special Interest Group (SIG).
Date policy adopted: September 2016
Contacts: Dr Helen Vidgen and Dr Julie Woods, Co-Convenors, Food and Nutrition SIG
PHAA Policy Statement on: Prevention and Management of Overweight and Obesity in Australia
20 Napier Close Deakin ACT Australia 2600 – PO Box 319 Curtin ACT Australia 2605 XXXXXXXXXX2
T XXXXXXXXXXF XXXXXXXXXXE XXXXXXXXXX W www.phaa.net.au
Prevention and Management of Overweight and Obesity in Australia Policy
Statement
The Public Health Association of Australia notes that:
1. Globally, high and rising levels of adult and child overweight and obesity are a threat to good health.
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) plan for preventing and managing non-communicable diseases
includes a focus on reducing obesity, improving diets and increasing levels of physical activity.1
2. Obesity rates in Australia are among the highest in the world.2 In XXXXXXXXXX% of adults were
overweight and 28% obese, with combined rates of overweight and obesity (63%) up from 56% in 1995
and 61% in XXXXXXXXXXWhile the combined prevalence of overweight (18%) and obesity (8%) in children
(5-17 years) has stabilised at 25%, it remains high. Overweight and obesity are more common in lower-
socioeconomic and some immigrant groups and in Aboriginal and To
es Strait Islander people. These
inequalities commonly begin in childhood and persist or widen across the life course.3
3. Overweight and obesity contributed 5.5% of all Australian disease and injury burden (BOD) in 2011.
High body mass was responsible for 52% of the diabetes burden, 38% of chronic kidney disease burden,
23% of coronary heart disease burden and 17% of stroke burden4 and also reduces psychosocial
health.1 Poor diet and inadequate physical activity were considered separately and contribute 7% and
5% respectively to BOD.
4. The social and economic costs of overweight and obesity are high. A recent estimate concluded that
without additional and increased investment in well-designed obesity interventions there will be 50%
more obese people and the cumulative, marginal economic costs of obesity in Australia will reach $87.7
illion by 2025, not including the impact on the quality of life of the obese, their families and carers.5
5. Approximately 80% of overweight children become overweight adults.6 Once overweight, it is difficult
to lose weight, so preventing weight gain is important.
6. Body Mass Index (BMI), the ratio of weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared, is the
main population-level indicator of weight status for adults and children, and is used with caution at the
individual level.
7. As poor diet and physical inactivity are key determinants of unhealthy weight, achieving healthy weight
will not be possible without significant focus and investment in both these areas, particularly in
egulatory policy actions for which there is strong supportive evidence.7
8. The many complex and interacting biological, behavioural and societal factors contributing to causing
overweight and obesity can be classified into seven cross-cutting themes: biology, the physical activity
PHAA Policy Statement on: Prevention and Management of Overweight and Obesity in Australia
20 Napier Close Deakin ACT Australia 2600 – PO Box 319 Curtin ACT Australia 2605 XXXXXXXXXX3
T XXXXXXXXXXF XXXXXXXXXXE XXXXXXXXXX W www.phaa.net.au
environment, individual physical activity levels, societal influences, individual psychology, food
environment and food consumption.8
9. National and international organisations emphasis that a sustained and comprehensive portfolio of
interventions is required to address overweight and obesity and not the central role of government
leadership in achieving population level impact.1
10. The WHO’s recent report on childhood and adolescent obesity reinforced the need for: multiple
strategies to halt rising rates; consideration of the environmental context and three critical time
periods in the life course – preconception and pregnancy, infancy and early childhood, and other
childhood and adolescence; and the importance of treating children who are already obese.9
11. Australia does not have a comprehensive ongoing national obesity plan, despite recommendations for
one.10 Cu
ent initiatives to prevent and manage overweight and obesity and promote healthy eating
and physical activity run by Commonwealth, state and te
itory governments and other organisations,
are insufficient to halt and reverse high obesity rates.11
12. Obesity prevention is not a cu
ent national government priority with both national funding ceasing
and the Australian National Preventive Health Agency abolished.12
13. To effectively prevent excessive weight gain, interventions are required to change the physical, policy,
economic, educational and social environments to support healthy diets and physical activity and
educe sedentary behaviours. Further health gains beyond healthy weight would be achieve by such
interventions.1
14. Whole of population strategies as well as strategies targeted at key points across the life-course
(pregnancy, early childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age) and for disadvantaged groups including
those with high rates of overweight and obesity, poor diet and inadequate physical activity are required
to cost-effectively prevent and manage overweight and obesity.13
15. Monitoring of body weight status occurs approximately every three years as part of the National Health
Survey. National monitoring of diet, physical activity, weight and other chronic disease risk factors is ad
hoc and uncoordinated and there are no cu
ent plans for an ongoing national monitoring program.
16. Other PHAA policies contain information relevant to this policy: Food, Nutrition and Health; Physical
Activity; Marketing of Food and Beverages to Children; Food and Nutrition Monitoring and Surveillance
in Australia; and Towards a National Nutrition Policy for Australia.
The Public Health Association of Australia affirms the following principles:
17. As the factors contributing to overweight and obesity are complex, no single intervention can halt the
ise of the growing obesity epidemic. A range of strategies over the long term are needed that take into
PHAA Policy Statement on: Prevention and Management of Overweight and Obesity in Australia
20 Napier Close Deakin ACT Australia 2600 – PO Box 319 Curtin ACT Australia 2605 XXXXXXXXXX4
T XXXXXXXXXXF XXXXXXXXXXE XXXXXXXXXX W www.phaa.net.au
consideration the interaction between the individual, the environment and the social determinants of
health.
18. The public health problems of obesity, poor diet and inadequate physical activity cannot be solved by
education and personal responsibility. Creating healthy food and physical activity environments will
enable the population to exercise their personal