Campaigns
Learn about our work on the health promotion levy and front of package warning labels for food.
Get Involved
You can help! Find out how to get involved in our digital and community campaigns.
Campaigns
Learn about our work on the health promotion levy and front of package warning labels for food.
Get Involved
You can help! Find out how to get involved in our digital and community campaigns.
HEALA’s mission is to create a platform for communities to organise and mobilise around policy and the realisation of the right to affordable, nutritious food.
HEALA is a coalition of civil society organisations that advocates for equitable access to affordable and nutritious food for all in South Africa.
Section 27(1)(b) of the South African Constitution guarantees all the right to sufficient food and commits the state to the progressive realisation of this right. Additionally, Section 28(1)(c) states that every child has the right to basic nutrition, shelter, basic health care services and social services.
Yet, today South Africa’s poor communities bear the brunt of the country’s unequal food system. Affordable, nutritious food is hard to come by. As a result, poor communities experience high levels of hunger as well as high levels of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, some of the country’s leading causes of death.
Because government policy forms a crucial part of South Africa’s food system, HEALA believes that hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition are policy choices.
That’s why we work with a range of civil society organisations to advocate for government to ensure the food system is better regulated and that policies meant to curb hunger are working for the communities that need them.
Our Campaigns
HEALA advances the right to food by advocating for more just food systems in South Africa through policy changes. HEALA’s campaigns focus on improving food regulation, hunger alleviation measures and industry accountability.
Our two main campaigns focus on pushing for the increase of the health promotion levy (“sugar tax”) to 20% to align with World Health Organisation guidelines and the introduction of front-of-package warning labels to help South Africans make more informed nutrition decisions.
We also campaign to hold big food producers accountable to the law, promote transparency and we want to create greater public awareness of the importance of nutrition in health. Finally, to address hunger we advocate for an increase of the Child Support Grant and the introduction of a Basic Income Grant.
News
Delays in increasing the Health Promotion Levy a danger to South Africans
On World Diabetes Day the Healthy Living Alliance, HEALA, embarked on a day of action calling on the government to increase the Health Promotion Levy …
OPINION: Let’s be upfront on front-of-pack labelling
By Nzama Mbalati and Zukiswa Zimela It is really difficult to read food labels. What is trans-fat? How is it different from saturated fat? Why …
South Africa can show BRICS leadership with a new sugar approach
South Africa blazed a trail as the first African country to legalise a tax on sugary drinks, making a bold stand on 1 April 2018. …
OP ED: Help protect your fellow South Africans against predatory food practices
The National Department of Health has released front-of-pack warning label regulations for public comment. South Africans need to participate in the process to ensure that …
A healthy economy needs a healthy population.
A stunted population means a stunted economy. It is a fact that food justice and economic development go hand in hand. The unbelievable cost of …
STATEMENT: We can’t rely on food and beverage industry to safeguard our health
A cursory walk around the supermarket shows that South African shops are inundated with pre-packaged foods that are processed with high levels of added sugars, …
HEALA
We are guided by our mission to improve the health of an increasingly obese South Africa through our campaigns. Empowering people to make healthy food and lifestyle choices is our priority.
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