Obesity Creative Lab
Helping Abu Dhabi government build its obesity prevention strategy
Client:
H.E. Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohamed Al Hamed, Chairman, Department of Health – Abu Dhabi
Problem to solve:
Create an event which brings together senior leadership from Abu Dhabi and federal government to agree short, medium and long term strategies for obesity prevention.
Solution:
A high level workshop in which staff from government entities formed obesity prevention projects, assigning owners and key contributors, before leadership ratified the projects.
Background:
In June 2018, Department of Health – Abu Dhabi on behalf of Chairman H.E. Sheikh Abdulla Al Hamed, asked Interact to conceptualise a high-level event bringing together all government entities with a “stake” in obesity prevention.
The objective was to create an environment in which entities work together to form and commit to tangible projects that tackle the obesity epidemic.
Interact created the plan for an Obesity Creative Lab and delivered the event. Communication went out to relevant UAE Ministers, Abu Dhabi Executive Council members, government department Chairmen and Director Generals. Each VIP was invited to assign staff responsible for obesity prevention projects and send them to the all-day workshop. All VIPs were invited to attend the final hour.
Staff worked together to form short, medium and long-term solutions in physical activity, nutrition and infrastructure and then presented their projects to the VIPs, who ratified the projects on the day.
The final activity was a fun smoothie making competition for VIPs, to make the event as memorable as possible.
Highlights:
- All short-term projects completed, with medium and long-term projects underway
- Many of Abu Dhabi’s existing projects to improve nutrition and diet were created as a direct result of the Obesity Creative Lab e.g. Sehhi programme
- The projects created through the workshop are an early example of effective collaboration between numerous government departments across multiple levels (leadership, management, mid management, exec)
