TOP STORY: WHO cares

The World Health Organisation has agreed on a strategy to tackle the harmful use of alcohol on a global scale. Report by Alexis Hercules

Last month The World Health Organisation (WHO) was given the green light to draw up a global strategy to tackle harmful alcohol consumption, and the industry is satisfied with the decision that has been reached, calling it balanced and constructive.
The potentially groundbreaking proposal, entitled “Strategies to reduce the harmful use of alcohol”, was agreed upon by the 193 member states at the 61st meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA), held in Geneva from 19-24 May, and the blueprint for action will be presented in full in 2010.
The main facet of the agreement is that it will not be a blanket resolution, as feared by some. Instead, individual governments will be able to tailor a set of proposed measures to the specific culture and needs of their country, thereby avoiding a situation similar to that caused by The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which was agreed in 2005, resulting in devastating effects on the tobacco industry.
The resolution stipulates that the “draft global strategy will be composed of a set of proposed measures recommended for states to implement at the national level, taking into account the national circumstances of each country”. These could cover guidance on the marketing, pricing, and distribution of alcoholic drinks and public awareness campaigns.
Last year the drinks business reported that any potential agreement looked some way off, despite acknowledgment by both health legislators and the trade that responsible consumption needed to be pushed high up on the agendas of both. Back then, disagreements between individual member states threatened to undermine and potentially eradicate the possibility of any future policy.
The WHO is probably best known for leading the battle against infectious diseases, but it also works with governments to reduce the impact of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes and those problems connected to the heart. It is within this group that the reduction in harmful use of alcohol falls, as does tobacco and concerns about food and diet.

Step in the right direction
There is acknowledgement that this is a step in the right direction, and not a victory of any sort. However, the industry will be relieved that the member states of the World Health Assembly have chosen to ignore a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, the adopted proposals will be country specific, like those previously agreed upon to tackle obesity. Some credit for this decision should go to the Global Alcohol Producers Group (GAP Group), an informal industry coalition representing 16 of the world’s leading international beer, wine and spirits companies. From their inception in 2005 the GAP Group has been engaged in consultations with the WHO.
“Although alcohol is enjoyed responsibly and in moderation most of the time by most consumers who choose to drink,” said Chris Swonger, senior vice president of corporate affairs at Beam Global, a GAP Group member, “a minority of individuals misuse alcohol products. Combating the harmful use of alcohol by this minority will ensure that the global strategy targets the problems at the point where they can most efficiently be tackled.”
Mark Leverton, director of alcohol policy and industry issues for Diageo, added to this statement with “we welcome the decision as fighting harmful alcohol use such as drink driving, underage drinking and binge drinking are very real concerns to Diageo”.
Creating the conditions for a productive dialogue with the WHO has been particularly important for the GAP Group. It has been and will remain very important that the alcohol beverage industry engages positively in tackling harmful use of alcohol.

It would seem that the efforts made by the GAP Group to work effectively with the WHO may have gone a long way towards the decision avoiding a resolution that proposed a singular focus on high taxes and restrictions on availability. The GAP Group were eager to stress that such measures should not be seen as a panacea that would solve harmful drinking. In fact, they could lead to a set of unintended problems such as black markets and illicit products, both of which would have massively adverse effects on public health and well-being, bearing in mind that 50% of alcohol consumed worldwide is non-commercial or illicit.
“What’s on the table looks to be a good decision,” said GAP Group spokeswoman Abigail Jones, “it is a workable way forward, and we are all trying to tackle the harmful use of alcohol.” Jones regards the international point of view as being vitally important. “To address harmful drinking we must take a global view. In developing nations and emerging markets like India, two thirds of alcohol is not commercial, and high tax shifts will only add to this.”
Vijay Rekhi, president of United Spirits, UB Group’s flagship company, added to these sentiments. “Branded spirits account for only 30% of all alcohol consumed in India, with the remaining 70% consumption being country liquor, which poses several challenges for public health officials.”
The threat of deaths from illegal alcohol is very real, as just last month around 150 people died and another 135 became ill, some critically, after drinking poisonous alcohol sold in an Indian district on the border between the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Deaths from illegally brewed alcohol are depressingly common in South Asia.

Tax tactics
Concerns about tax were addressed, as although the report states “price is an important determinant of alcohol consumption and, in many contexts, of the extent of alcohol-related problems,” it goes on to stress that “high tax rates may not be the first choice of policy in countries where alcohol-related problems are less important or there is a considerable informal market, and interventions directed at particular subpopulations may be more cost-effective”.

Although predictions assessing the wide reaching impacts of the decision cannot be made yet, chief executive of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association Jeremy Beadles goes along with the general consensus that “it looks to be a sensible decision. The misuse of alcohol takes many different forms in different countries, and a one-size policy would not work. Countries like Russia, where around half of the alcohol consumed comes from the black market, need their own solutions, and regulating the legal trade would just increase production on the illegal side of things.”
It remains to be seen whether the global strategy, once ratified in 2010, will have any significant effect. For now however, there is a positive outlook across the board, and the main focus should be that governments around the world, the WHO and the industry have a framework to work together on an issue of global importance, and are determined to come to a sensible solution that will actually benefit people.

db © June 2008