Primary prevention
To enhance the effect of preventive measures, we take a life course approach focusing on windows of opportunity (childhood, adolescence, and women's reproductive years)
Our Aspiration
We aspire to combat the rising prevalence of diabetes and related NCDs through increasing opportunities for healthy living and healthy pregnancies.
Our Focus
We strive to increase opportunities for healthy living and healthy pregnancies to reduce the burden of diabetes and related NCDs in LMICs.
Our approach focuses on:
- Key windows of opportunity: during pregnancy and early childhood.
- Multi-level interventions: individual, organisational, and systemic.
- Healthy setting approach: using schools and health facilities as entry points.
Health Promotion Approach
We aim to make it easier for children, pregnant women, and their babies—especially those living in poverty—to live a life free of diabetes and related NCDs by:
- Access to healthy food options
- Creating environments conducive to physical activity
- Supporting healthy pregnancies
Partners are encouraged to:
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Work at the individual level by empowering children, parents, and pregnant women to make healthy choices.
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Address organisational bottlenecks by improving access to healthy food and physical activity opportunities.
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Strengthen the systemic level through enabling policy environments and resource mobilisation for NCD prevention.
This holistic approach combines upstream interventions (policy and legislation) with downstream interventions (individual and organisational levels).
Lifestyle interventions focusing solely on individual behaviour change are unlikely to succeed without systemic support.
Healthy Pregnancies
By preventing and treating Hyperglycaemia in Pregnancy (HIP), we can reduce the risk of diabetes and related NCDs across generations.
Building on WDF’s two decades of targeted HIP support, we will:
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Support women in having healthy pregnancies through capacity building and health promotion activities.
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Encourage partners to strengthen screening, diagnosis, and treatment of HIP, including post-partum follow-up.
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Improve women’s ability to self-manage HIP.
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Ensure access to culturally appropriate advice and HIP care at health facilities equipped with trained staff and necessary supplies.
Healthy Childhood
For primary prevention in school settings, we will leverage learnings from WDF’s school health projects by:
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Supporting partners to improve health literacy skills for children.
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Promoting capacity building and health promotion activities to increase demand for healthier products.