RESET Alcohol Partner Meeting held in Mexico City
Three representatives from the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance (GAPA) joined the recent partner-meeting for the RESET Alcohol initiative. The meeting focused on progress in project countries and the strong evidence for alcohol taxation as a win-win measure to reduce alcohol harm and generate revenue.
RESET Alcohol is a three-year initiative aiming to reduce harm from alcohol consumption in selected countries through policy measueres. Smart policies can reset the environment and reduce the health and social burden of alcohol. The RESET Alcohol initiative brings together national governments, civil society, research organizations and global leaders to advance three policies—alcohol taxation, marketing and availability—from the World Health Organization’s SAFER package for reducing the health, social and economic harms of alcohol. It is led by Vital Strategies in collaboration with Movendi International, the Tobacconomics team at Johns Hopkins University, GAPA, NCD Alliance, and World Health Organization.
The initiative puts proven policies, technical expertise, and financial resources at the fingertips of governments who are ready to act towards a healthier, more prosperous future. The partner meeting offered an opportunity to share and learn among the participating countries; discuss strategy and set priorities; revisit the evidence base for chosen interventions; and nurture the growing alcohol policy community represented by RESET Alcohol countries and partners. More than 50 people from Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and international partners participated in the meeting in Mexico City at the end of February. These countries are where current RESET Alcohol efforts are under way to support alcohol policy development with an emphasis on alcohol taxation. This is one of the strongest policies to reduce alcohol harm as identified in the WHO technical package, SAFER. Other high impact policies such as limiting availability and restrictions on alcohol marketing were also part of the discussion.
From GAPA Sally Casswell, David Jernigan and Øystein Bakke participated in the discussion and Sally Casswell presented on findings and implications from the International Alcohol Control (IAC) study in the RESET countries
The RESET Alcohol initiative is funded by Open Philanthropy which has identified alcohol policy development as a neglected area with great potential for improving lives of millions of people around the world.