Inaugural Lecture, Professor Shona Hilton

We are pleased to invite you to:

IHW Inaugural Lecture with Professor Shona Hilton

Title: When David meets Goliath: policy responses to unhealthy commodity industries

Presenter: Professor Shona Hilton

Date: Thursday 30 May 2019

Time: 4pm - 5pm followed by a drinks reception from 5pm-6pm

Venue: The Yudowitz seminar room, Wolfson Medical Building, University Ave

Chair: Professor Laurence Moore

Lecture Outline

When David meets Goliath: policy responses to unhealthy commodity industries

Last September, at the Third United Nations High-level Meeting on Non-Communicable diseases (NCDs) there were political declarations in support of greater multi-stakeholder action to prevent NCDs, including involvement of the private sector and industry. However, through the sale and promotion of tobacco, alcohol, and ultra-processed food and drink (unhealthy commodities), transnational corporations are major drivers of global epidemics of NCDs. Indeed, for the first time in history NCDs now pose a greater global health burden than communicable infectious diseases. Drawing on examples from Prof Hilton’s research, this inaugural lecture presents evidence on the strategies that transnational corporations use to undermine NCD policies, and how networked coalitions construct their arguments for or against specific policy initiatives. She will highlight how the complex inter-dependency between the strategies used by stakeholders to influence public health policies and framing of evidence in media debates is poorly understood; yet is crucial to understand if public health is to tackle the global producers and marketers of unhealthy commodities.

About the Speaker

Professor Shona Hilton is Deputy Director of the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit and co-leads a research programme on public health policy. Her research focuses on macro level determinants of public health and the framing of policy debates through scientific, political and media channels. She conducts rapid response research into emerging high-profile health policies to offer policy-makers early insights into how health issues, evidence and policy solutions are being framed. Recent policies investigated include: minimum unit pricing for alcohol, the prohibition of smoking in vehicles carrying children, the soft drinks industry levy, and regulation of the use, marketing and availability of e-cigarettes.