Reflecting on a Remarkable Year: Gratitude, Collaboration, and Momentum for 2025
As we approach the holiday season and reflect on the year that is almost behind us, I feel immense gratitude for the people with whom we have had the honor to work and grow together as a community.
This year we have had the privilege of organising two high level alcohol policy events in Geneva and New York. At these events, representatives from the governments, UN agencies, academia, and civil society have brought to light their strong commitment to taking alcohol policy action to promote people’s health.
The key takeaways from these events were clear: the momentum for alcohol policy continues to build, and people’s need for and support of alcohol policy action keep growing.
We reached millions of people by contributing to several popular TV programs discussing alcohol policy and industry interference.
We supported alcohol policy development in more than 40 countries.
We trained alcohol policy advocates through over 30 virtual workshops and more than 10 in-person seminars, including as part of the RESET Alcohol Initiative.
We empowered young people from around the world through 6 virtual sessions and one in-person conference.
Throughout the year we provided key resources for the broader alcohol policy community: Over 60 alcohol policy news stories, more than 100 reports about alcohol industry misconduct, over 40 science digest updates, and 11 episodes for season three of our Alcohol Issues Podcast.
We do this work as social movement, meaning in partnerships, collaborations, and rooted in communities’ and people’s lived experience and desire for change. Together.
It has been a remarkable year. We have done so much. We have learnt so much. We have shared a lot and the most important, we did it together! Thank you! We could not have done it without you.”
Kristina Sperkova
Together, we’re facing severe challenges at all levels.
The alcohol industry has been attacking independent scientists, NGOs, policymakers and advocates, deploying predatory tactics to derail promising alcohol laws in the making, and to maximize profits.
We have witnessed first hand and stood together with heart-driven alcohol policy advocates defending their countries’ world class alcohol policy systems from being dismantled by alcohol industry interference.
We also experienced the rewards of unity and perseverance together with our members and partners who played important roles in supporting governments to overcome alcohol industry interference for the implementation of ambitious alcohol policy solutions.
It has been a remarkable year. We have done so much. We have learnt so much. We have shared a lot and the most important, we did it together! Thank you! We could not have done it without you.
As we together step into 2025, we do so with the knowledge that more people are calling for alcohol policy action to prevent harm and promote health.
We are stepping into a new year understanding that more journalists are paying attention, covering alcohol harm, policy, and industry interference and reaching out to talk and work with us. We feel empowered by growing scientific research showing ever clearer the real extent of alcohol harm and the full transformative potential of alcohol policy and we feel inspired by more countries taking action.
With this sense of enthusiasm and determination we wish you peaceful holidays and a happy and healthy new year. We look forward to continuing this journey together with you in the coming year.
