GAPC 2017 Mobilising for change

October 4, 2017 - October 6, 2017

The Global Alcohol Policy Conference (GAPC2017), Mobilising for change: Alcohol policy and the evidence for action, was held from 4-6 October 2017 in Melbourne, Australia

In his summary at the closing of the GAPC2017 Professor David Jernigan, chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance, reported the hard facts about the conference:

331 delegates,
40 countries represented,
three thematic pre-conferences,
nine plenary sessions,
20 concurrent sessions and 12 workshops.
A total of 120 oral presentations

The Global Alcohol Policy Alliance (GAPA), Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA), and National Alliance for Action on Alcohol Harm (NAAA) hosted this important international conference.

The GAPCs, organised every second year, have become the leading forum for the world’s alcohol policy makers, researchers and practitioners. Melbourne, Australia was fifth such event, following the successful conferences in USA (2000), Thailand (2012), South Korea (2013) and Scotland (2015). In the closing session the GAPC flag was handed over to Pubudu Sumanasekara from Sri Lanka, which will be the host country in 2019.

GAPC2017 maintained the tradition of focusing on advocacy, overcoming vested interests in alcohol policy development and the need for international collaboration to stop the harm caused by alcohol. A number of presentations addressed aspects of how the international drinks industry is pushing new markets in low and middle income countries through policy.

The conference forged links between evidence and action, using rigorous alcohol policy research to inform effective responses at local, state, national and international levels. In the final session the Conference Communique (pdf) was presented.

The DrinkTank website is full of documentation, post event updates and videos from the conference.

See the video from GAPC 2017: