The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand

*ALL INFORMATION SHARED IN THIS PRESS BRIEFING IS STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01 GMT / 07:01 BANGKOK, 10 SEPTEMBER 2025

Aggressive junk food marketing is driving record levels of childhood obesity in East Asia and the Pacific.

Childhood obesity in East Asia and the Pacific is rising at alarming speed. A new UNICEF report, Turning the tide on childhood overweight in East Asia and the Pacific: Building better food environments for children, reveals the region is now home to 115 million children who are overweight or obese -- one in four. The number has nearly tripled since 2000.

The report highlights how junk food marketing and the flood of cheap, ultra-processed products are fueling this epidemic, putting millions of children at risk of lifelong health problems.

Join us at the FCCT for a press briefing on these urgent findings and the call for stronger policies to protect children’s right to healthy food.

Speakers:

Dr Roland Kupka, Regional Nutrition Adviser, UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific.

Dr Saipin Chotivichian, Director, Bureau of Nutrition, Department of Health, Thailand.

Myat Pan Khit (Florence), Change Maker, Myanmar.

Moderator: Sarah Newey, journalist.

[This is not an FCCT-organized event. Free and open to all. Light refreshments provided.]

“Fragmented aid and resistance along the India–Myanmar border” is a new research report examining how refugees from Myanmar are navigating life in India’s northeast amid weak humanitarian responses and restrictive state policies. With international aid largely absent, local communities and grassroots networks have become the backbone of support.

Since the 2021 coup, over 83,000 people have crossed into Mizoram and Manipur, yet there is no refugee protection framework and little international attention compared to the Thai–Myanmar border.

The findings of this report show that while grassroots support networks have provided a critical lifeline, humanitarian assistance overall remains limited due to lack of funding and resources, poor coordination, political tensions, and the fact that access to support often is mediated by social and political affiliations. The recent suspension of $39 million in U.S. aid has further intensified the crisis, forcing many organisations to scale back or close operations.

The event will include a presentation of key research findings, followed by a panel discussion featuring experts and frontline actors working at the intersection of humanitarian response, regional security, and political activism.