Experts urge WHO to formally recognise obesity and steatotic liver disease as priority non-communicable diseases

The ISGlobal Public Health Liver Group supported the World Obesity Federation in the delivery of a joint statement to the World Health Organization Executive Board (WHO EB), calling for accelerated global action on obesity and steatotic liver disease.

The statement highlighted the scale and urgency of the public health threat. More than one billion people worldwide are living with obesity, and over 70% are estimated to develop metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)—a largely preventable metabolic condition that can progress to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Liver cancer cases have increased by more than 200% since 1980.

The statement underscored that these burdens affect all WHO Member States and share common drivers with other non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Despite this, obesity remains fragmented across public health policy, and MASLD continues to be largely absent from global frameworks. To reduce premature mortality and disability, and to advance Universal Health Coverage, the statement called for a World Health Assembly resolution to embed obesity and MASLD as diseases within WHO frameworks, normative guidance, action plans, and Best Buys.

Linking scientific evidence to global health policy processes

The intervention reflects the Public Health Liver Group’s ongoing role in linking scientific evidence to global health policy processes. It builds on policy-focused work led by the Group over the past year, including the Global Metabolic Health Roundtables Series (GMHR), delivered in partnership with Healthy Livers, Healthy Lives, a coalition of five medical associations from around the world.

The GMHR series comprised three regional virtual meetings held in 2025—covering Latin America and the Caribbean; the Middle East and North Africa; and Asia and the Pacific—and consistently identified the continued under-recognition of MASLD within NCD strategies, despite strong evidence and available clinical guidance that justifies its inclusion.

Outcomes from the roundtables informed subsequent high-level policy engagement, including a metabolic and liver health policy side-event at the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Noncommunicable Diseases in September 2025, and a dedicated session at the World Health Summit in October 2025. Both forums focused on the persistent exclusion of MASLD and MASH from the global NCD response.

A unified front across metabolic and liver health

The joint statement to the WHO EB also follows the publication of a coordinated editorial, “Name MASLD/MASH – and Act on It”, published in three scientific journals in response to the United Nations General Assembly Declaration on Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health. The editorial signalled growing alignment across the liver, diabetes, and obesity communities, with convergence among leading international organisations including the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, the European Association for the Study of the Liver, the International Diabetes Federation, the Latin American Association for the Study of the Liver, and the World Obesity Federation.

A landmark opportunity for coordinated global action

“This represents a landmark moment for steatotic liver disease. It is the first time a proposal explicitly addressing SLD has been brought to the WHO Executive Board, and the first civil society statement on this issue delivered at that level. If a resolution is adopted at the World Health Assembly in May, it would provide a critical institutional signal and could catalyse coordinated action across countries, to help millions of people worldwide.” says Jeffrey V Lazarus, Head of the ISGlobal Public Health Liver Group and Professor, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy

Together, these developments point to a consistent policy message: while evidence is robust and international alignment is increasing, formal institutional framing from WHO remains essential to enable coordinated global action on obesity and steatotic liver disease. To that end, we welcome the landmark proposal for a steatotic liver disease resolution put forward by 13 countries to the WHO EB and support its approval at the World Health Assembly in May 2026.