The High-Level Interactive Dialogue on the Social, Economic and Environmental Determinants of Health
With support from the World Health Organization (WHO), the President of the UN General Assembly hosted a High-Level Interactive Dialogue on the Determinants of Health, prior to the 2025 UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. This Dialogue was a timely opportunity to spotlight and build on growing global efforts to advance the social determinants of health equity.
The event consisted of an opening segment, a plenary session and a panel discussion with experts on social, economic, commercial, and environmental determinants of health. The meeting was open to Member States and Observers of the UN General Assembly as well as entities of the UN System. Civil society organizations with consultative status with ECOSOC were also invited to participate in the panel discussion. And Movendi International took part with two representatives, including Robert Pezzolesi, the representative to the United Nations for Movendi International.
WHO’s World Report on Social Determinants of Health Equity
The Dialogue followed the release of the WHO World report on social determinants of health equity, the first global report on the topic since the report of the 2008 WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. With 14 specific recommendations for action, the World Report focuses the narrative and action agenda on what produces and reproduces health inequities and what proven policy remedies are available.
The WHO’s World Report on Social Determinants of Health Equity acknowledges the alcohol industry as a harmful commercial actor and endorses alcohol taxation as a tool to prevent and reduce harm and promote fiscal justice. However, the report fails to address alcohol as a social and environmental determinant of health, omits WHO’s SAFER policy framework, and does not mention civil society actors like Movendi. It misses the opportunity to fully frame alcohol policy as a lever for social equity and sustainable development – a gap that advocates now have to work to close.
As part of the discussions mandated by the UN General Assembly to address determinants of health, the Dialogue served as important occasion to draw attention to the World Report’s recommendations. For Movendi International it also served as opportunity to speak to the importance of the Fourth High-Level Meeting on NCDs being used as turning point for alcohol policy acceleration.
Robert Pezzolesi, Representative to the United Nations of Movendi International delivered the statement. Watch UN Web TV here. The Movendi International statement by Robert Pezzolesi starts at 31:30 minutes.
Movendi International Delivered Statement
We speak today from a place of shared purpose: the commitment to build fairer, healthier societies where everyone can thrive.
At the heart of this commitment is the belief that health is a human right – not a privilege.
And yet, the environments where people are born, grow, live, work, and age too often drive ill-health instead of promoting well-being. One major reason is the influence of powerful commercial actors who shape our social norms, public policies, and physical spaces to maximize their profits – at great cost to people and societies.
One of the most overlooked and underestimated barriers to health and social justice is the harm caused by the products and practices of the alcohol industry.
Alcohol harm is driven by the conditions people live in – and by aggressive industry strategies that create and profit from those very conditions. The alcohol industry targets and exploits the most vulnerable, driving and deepening lines of poverty, violence, marginalization, gender, race, and class.
Applying the WHO model of the social determinants of health, alcohol emerges as a cross-cutting threat:
- As a social determinant, alcohol harm undermines education, employment, safety, and social cohesion.
- As a commercial determinant, alcohol companies use predatory strategies – what we call the Dubious Five: political interference, manipulative marketing, deception, corporate sabotage, and image-washing – especially targeting young people, women, and low-income communities.
- And as an environmental determinant, alcohol production drives water and food scarcity, pollution, and emissions – while companies deploy greenwashing campaigns to hide the damage.
What ties all this together is a deep and systemic conflict of interest. The alcohol industry’s business model depends on the very conditions we are gathered here to transform – inequality, exclusion, and exploitation. Their profits depend on heavy and high-risk alcohol consumption.
That’s why urgent, ambitious action is needed.
Movendi International calls for policies that realign our economies with our values – starting by making the alcohol industry pay for the harm their products and practices cause.
Alcohol taxation is a high-impact, cost-effective, and equity-promoting measure. It saves lives, reduces harm, and generates public revenue. But today, alcohol remains under-taxed and over-subsidized in too many countries – a dangerous and unjust legacy of industry interference.
We also call for an end to public subsidies, trade privileges, and political partnerships with the alcohol industry. Public funds should benefit the public good – not private profit.
Movendi International supports full implementation of WHO’s social determinants framework with our HLM4 priorities – alcohol taxation, addressing commercial determinants in governance improvements, accelerating investment in health promotion, and protecting civic space so community voices can shape the policies that affect them.
Let this dialogue and the upcoming High-Level Meeting on NCDs and Mental Health be a turning point – where countries begin to use alcohol policy as a powerful lever for health, equity, and social and economic justice.
Thank you.”
Source Website: Movendi International Advocacy Priorities for HLM4 on NCDs