Summary of a case study published in 2019
In 2016 the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages was a growing problem in Cambodia, particularly in urban areas like Phnom Penh. In 2017 the city’s Municipal Health Department saw an opportunity to address the issue by working with the Partnership for Healthy Cities. The goal was to reduce demand not via legislative means, but rather by improving public awareness, engaging with stakeholders, and gaining baseline support for new policies in the future.
The Municipal Health Department partnered with the National Centre for Health Promotion in Cambodia to conduct a city survey on knowledge and behaviours related to sugar-sweetened beverage consumption. This revealed a number of specific beliefs that needed to be addressed. Insights from the survey subsequently informed the design of a large-scale communication campaign and also assessed the levels of support for policies to reduce the availability and affordability of the beverages.
The campaign informed residents about the negative health impacts of consuming the drinks through several outreach channels. It ran a two-month television campaign, displayed posters with key messages throughout the city, and designed leaflets for schools and community settings. Workshops were run with community leaders, school principals and other stakeholders to increase engagement and involvement in the campaign.
Initial indicators to assess the campaign’s impact focused on community engagement and public awareness, such as the number and variety of educational materials produced, and changes in participants’ knowledge before and after the workshops. The authorities also planned to repeat the survey to assess changes in public awareness over time, and to see if there was increased support for the introduction of new policies to reduce the accessibility of sugar-sweetened beverages.
By working together, different municipal departments were able to pool their resources to test communications messages with local stakeholders and take advantage of synergies between the public-facing communications campaign and the policy development work. This ensured that the policies were tailored to public needs and attitudes. The international link with the Partnership for Healthy Cities was extremely useful in catalysing the work and providing guidance on evidence-based policies and actions, as well as sharing experiences from other cities who had worked on the same issue. Collaboration between the local and national levels was also important.
Finally, high-level political support from the Governor and Vice Governor of Phnom Penh City was a critical element of progress. The expectation that the policy framework of future options would be presented to the Governor himself at the end of the project gave the work political credibility, and demonstrated the Governor’s own interest in seeing the work deliver results for the health of the city.