By Karla Hershey, Mamadou Kane and Dirk Wagener, United Nations Resident Coordinators in the Pacific
In the Pacific, food tells a story. It is taro pulled from rich soil, freshly caught fish shared at sunset, breadfruit roasted over an open fire, leafy greens grown in family gardens. For generations, traditional food systems sustained communities with diversity, balance, and care for the land and ocean.
Yet across our region, a paradox has emerged. While healthy foods remain part of the heritage, they are often less affordable and accessible than processed, imported products. The result is a growing nutrition and health crisis affecting communities, health systems, and economies alike.
A staggering 28.8 percent of people across Asia and the Pacific cannot afford a healthy diet, according to the UN’s Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2025. In Oceania, nearly one in five people face this reality.
Overweight and obesity are rising at alarming rates. Adult obesity in Oceania, excluding Australia and New Zealand, stands at 24.8 percent, while 16 percent of children are overweight. Across the region, non-communicable diseases linked to poor diets account for 75 percent of premature deaths.
National data from several Pacific countries tell a similar story. A nutritious diet can cost several times more than a basic, energy-only diet, and many households cannot afford it. Adolescent girls and breastfeeding mothers often lose the most, compounding health risks and reinforcing cycles of vulnerability, including both household and structural gender inequities.
This challenge goes beyond access and affordability. The wider food environment, including the availability and marketing of processed foods high in sugar, salt and fat, shapes dietary patterns.
At the same time, local farmers face constraints that limit supply and drive-up costs. Families can only benefit when supportive policies, programs and environments make nutritious choices for the easiest and most accessible options.
Addressing this crisis requires coordinated, systemic solutions – and the United Nations works hand in hand with governments in the Pacific to support people and families in accessing healthy diets, particularly for children.
Strengthening Food Systems and Health-Promoting Environments
First, healthy food must be affordable, accessible, and part of a health-promoting environment. This means investing in local farmers, fisherfolks and producers, improving supply chains, supporting the production of diverse, nutritious foods – particularly traditional crops and locally grown vegetables – that have long sustained Pacific communities. It also involves empowering communities and schools to prepare and consume these foods in ways that maximise their health benefits. This is about embracing local practices while encouraging safe and nutritious preparation. Aligning trade, agriculture and social protection policies can further make healthy choices the easiest choices. Strengthening local food systems is not only about nutrition; it also supports resilience, livelihoods, and economic stability.
Policy and Fiscal Measures
Second, fiscal and policy measures play an important role. Taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages are already used in much of the Pacific to discourage unhealthy consumption patterns. As the experience in Fiji and Tonga shows, well-designed tax policies must be complemented by incentives for healthier products, industry engagement and monitoring to ensure meaningful nutrition outcomes. Policies should be designed to enable communities, not penalise them.
Schools as Hubs for Health-Promoting Environments
Third, schools need to lead by example. Healthier canteens and well-designed meal programs can improve children’s nutrition while easing household food costs. Schools shape habits that last a lifetime, and the food offered should support, not undermine, children’s health.
School gardens, already established in countries such as Fiji, Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia, help create health-promoting environments by enabling children to grow food, stay active and understand the value of nutritious diets. Initiatives such as the Health Promoting Schools Initiative in Fiji and Tonga show how schools can take a comprehensive approach by integrating nutrition, physical activity and healthy environments into everyday learning. Together, these efforts empower schools and communities to support children’s health in a practical and sustainable way.
Regulating Marketing and Labelling
Marketing of unhealthy foods, particularly to children, continues to shape preferences and make healthier choices more difficult. Clear front-of-package labelling, restrictions on harmful advertising and industry accountability are essential to create a more balanced environment where families can make informed choices. Evidence shows that such measures reduce consumption of food high in sugar, salt and fat, including processed baby foods, and help prevent obesity.
Multi-sector Collaboration
No single ministry or sector can solve this challenge alone. Health, agriculture, fisheries, education, finance and trade must work together, while communities, civil society, faith leaders and the private sector all play critical roles. Development partners, including the United Nations, support governments with technical expertise, financing, and lessons learned across the region. The UN system is helping countries translate commitments into evidence-based actions that strengthen food systems, improve diets, and create measurable improvements for families.
A Shared Responsibility for Health
The cost of inaction is high. Poor diets harm the well-being of children and of society as a whole, increasing the burden on health systems and slowing development. Heavy reliance on imported foods leaves Pacific countries vulnerable to external shocks. But the path forward is clear: making nutritious food affordable, supporting local production, improving school food environments, regulating the marketing of unhealthy foods, strengthening fiscal measures on their sale and importation, and implementing smart policy tools can shift the trajectory.
Every Pacific family should benefit from food systems that support health and dignity. This is not the responsibility of individuals alone. Governments, communities and partners have a shared obligation to create enabling environments. With determination, collaboration and evidence-based action, healthier children and a healthier Pacific are within reach.
