Special Issue: Alcohol Policy and Public Health—Contributing to the Global Debate on Accelerating Action on Alcohol
Research editorial
The editorial introduces the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Special Issue titled “Alcohol Policy and Public Health”.
Editorial summary
Motivated by the reports of mixed success regarding the achievements by member states on the objectives of the Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol this special issue aims to provide a platform for the publication of papers that would advance action around how best to progress alcohol control at local, national, and regional/global levels to reduce alcohol-related harms.
In September 2018, WHO launched its SAFER initiative further focusing national and international efforts on five high-impact strategic priorities for the prevention of alcohol-related death and disability and promotion of health and development. The five measures are: Strengthen restrictions on alcohol availability; Advance and enforce drink driving countermeasures; Facilitate access to screening, brief interventions, and treatment; Enforce bans or comprehensive restrictions on alcohol advertising, sponsorship, and promotion; and Raise prices on alcohol through excise taxes and pricing policies.
As a follow-up to the political declaration of the third high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in May 2019, the WHO Director General was requested to report to the Seventy-third World Health Assembly in 2020, through the Executive Board, on the implementation of WHO’s Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol during the first decade since its endorsement, and the way forward.
At the 146th session of the WHO Executive Board in February 2020, consideration was given to the report and its addendum. According to newspaper reports, “A group of member states, led by Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Sri Lanka and Thailand, supported by civil society groups combatting alcohol abuse and non-communicable diseases, wanted to see WHO embrace the development of binding “international instruments”, such as measures to reduce digital and cross-border marketing of alcohol products to adolescents”. It was reported, however, that such measures “met with stiff opposition from a cluster of countries that have big alcohol industry lobbies, including Japan and the United States”
A decision was adopted at the Executive Board in favour of identifying alcohol as a new public health problem and requesting the Director General to: (i) develop an action plan (2022–2030) to effectively implement the WHO Global Alcohol Strategy as a public health priority; (ii) develop a technical report on cross-border alcohol marketing, advertising and promotional activities, including those targeting youth and adolescents; (iii) resource the work on alcohol harm and policy solutions adequately; and (iv) review the WHO Global Alcohol Strategy and report to the 166th session of the Executive Board in 2030 for further action.
This Special Issue, completed in early May 2020, follows the 146th session of the WHO Executive Board but precedes the virtual 73rd World Health Assembly in May 2020, at which the attending member states will be invited to consider the same or an updated report. It also comes at a time at which there is an increasing demand for good information to inform the implementation of effective alcohol control measures at a country level, especially from Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICS). The 15 papers line up with the 10 areas for action outlined in the 2010 WHO Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol, the six areas of the SAFER initiative, the various levels where action may be taken, the country where the study was undertaken. Some papers includes a focus on industry behaviour. Six of the articles were of a qualitative nature.
Read the published article of the Special Issue
List of articles: Special Issue “Alcohol Policy and Public Health”
