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Search The Collaboration for Healthier Lives Coalition (CHL), an initiative of The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), brings together 37 manufacturers and retailer member companies, with over 5.8 million global employees, as well as public health authorities and civil society to empower people to live healthier and more sustainable lives. The key priorities of the Coalition center around three main topics – Better Options (Lifestage Wellness), Better Choices (Dietary Shifts) and Better Communities (Employee Health and Wellbeing).
As the Coalition enters a new chapter of leadership, Oonagh Turnbull, Head of Health and Sustainable Diet Campaigns at Tesco and Ayla Ziz, Global Chief Customer Officer and Senior Vice President Commercial Europe at Danone share their insights on where the coalition has been – and where it is headed next.
Ziz has been reelected to serve as Co-Chair of the coalition. She reflects on her four year tenure, since the Coalition’s launch in 2020, highlighting how businesses have come together across markets to implement and scale community-based health interventions. Turnbull joins this year, as Co-Chair, with a forward-looking perspective on how the Coalition can grow its reach and relevance.
Reflections on Progress
Over your three years as co-chair of the Coalition, what stands out most to you in terms of the coalition’s achievements?
The Coalition has achieved several milestones through its journey to empower people to live healthier and more sustainable lives. I’m particularly proud of our Coalition’s efforts towards establishing employee health and wellbeing programmes and sharing best practices.
In the four years following its inception, the Workforce Nutrition Alliance (WNA), a joint initiative by CGF and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), has helped companies support six million employees with workforce nutrition programmes – surpassing its goal to support three million employees and supply chain workers by 2025.
In your view, how has the Coalition’s reach and relevance developed over the years, both globally and at the local level and how do you see it evolving in the future?
On the topic of dietary shifts, over the past four years, the Coalition has undertaken more than 70 initiatives across a range of locations – including China, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Japan, Mexico, Türkiye, the UK, and the US – providing us with a wealth of actionable insights.
Our partnership with GAIN has been essential in setting a north star – realistic targets to guide businesses in leveraging the health and wellbeing of all employees.
Priorities for the Future
As you take on a co-chair role, what is your overall vision for the Coalition over the next few years?
I am delighted to have joined as Co-chair and to be working with Ayla and all the Coalition members as we develop and confirm our future agenda. So much has been already achieved but as we go beyond the fifth year of the Coalition, it is clear that this agenda has never been more important or critical to all of us.
We all know health is one of the things our customers care about most – for themselves, and for their loved ones. But for too many families, the barriers to healthier eating feels insurmountable. Obesity is at a record high in the UK and costs the NHS around £6.5 billion a year. Almost four in ten children are leaving primary school overweight or obese. And the impact isn’t equally spread. In England, children in the most deprived households are four times as likely to suffer from severe obesity.
The food industry has an important role to play in creating, promoting and providing healthier food on shelves. Together, we need to do more to put healthier choices into the hands of customers, more of the time. That means we must tackle the barriers our customers tell us they face and work together to develop innovative products, services and solutions that benefit the communities we serve.
What kind of new partnerships or collaboration models do you hope to explore, and how can the Coalition extend its influence in supporting healthier and more sustainable consumer choices?
We are exploring an ambitious future agenda for CHL which will see us developing new offers to support our customers with the most pressing health issues they are facing.
One of the key areas of focus is the dietary changes needed for human and planetary health. By partnering with the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNi) to track progress on initiatives, we hope to drive home the message that food systems can only be transformed through multi-stakeholder collaboration.
As the Coalition enters a new chapter, under the guidance of its Co-Chairs, and with a growing track record of tested interventions and shared learnings, the Coalition will continue to focus on practical, scalable solutions that support healthier lives for individuals, families, and communities around the world.
For more information on the Coalition of Action and how to get involved, please visit www.tcgfhealthierlives.com
The Coalition will be on the agenda at the next CGF Board meeting, followed by The Global Summit in Amsterdam. Register here for The Global Summit.
