Childhood obesity is determined by a constellation of factors ranging from macro-social, economic, and health policies all the way down to private sector, community, household, and individual choices across the life course. Therefore, public–private partnerships (PPPs) have been recognized as central for addressing the childhood obesity epidemic. In spite of this, there are very few real-world examples that have been published documenting how effective PPPs work in the area of childhood obesity. A key challenge behind the establishment of PPPs is the lack of trust among potential partners, especially due to conflict of interest concerns. Therefore, it is important to analyze ongoing PPPs that have apparently been able to overcome such challenges. Over the past 6 years, the Mondelēz International Foundation (MIF) has been partnering with private and public organizations across world regions supporting the delivery and evaluation of school-based healthy lifestyles programs focusing mainly in fostering healthy dietary and physical activity behaviors.
The objective of this article is to identify the key factors that have enabled the successful implementation of MIF-supported school-based PPPs in 7 countries located in Asia (China and India), Africa (South Africa), Europe (Germany, United Kingdom), and Latin America (Brazil and Mexico). Findings are likely to help understand how future PPPs seeking to curb the obesity epidemic can be successfully established across world regions.
