Amos Laar

Amos Laar is a leading voice on evidence-based food policy in Africa. His research interrogates how food environments, and the structural forces shaping them, drive diet-related diseases. He has led 25+ grants (>US$20 million) and authored 150+ publications. He is a contributor to two Lancet Series: on Commercial Determinants of Health, and on Ultra-Processed Foods. In Ghana, he co-curated the 2021 Food Systems Dialogues, helped develop Ghana´s 2023–2030 Food Systems Strategy, and its Food-Based Dietary Guidelines. Dr Laar leads the Healthier Diets for Healthy Lives project, which is supporting the development of a nutrient-profiling system and four food-based policies (marketing restrictions, front-of-pack labelling, public procurement, and food-related fiscal policy) in Ghana. Regionally, he serves as technical lead for the ECOWAS Food Policy Project, which is developing food-environment policies for West African states. In 2024, the African Union named him co-Convener of one of thirteen technical working groups that developed Africa’s 2026–2035 Food-Systems Strategy. He serves on the WHO Guideline Development Group on animal-source foods and has reviewed WHO guidelines on sodium substitutes, fats and carbohydrates, non-sugar sweeteners, and food-based dietary guidance. In 2019, he was honoured in The Lancet for his contributions to combating diet-related NCDs in Africa. He is a former President of the African Nutrition Society, convener of the Africa Food Environment Research Network (FERN), and Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.