A group of 106 community and public health leaders from 60 countries and six continents are calling on the World Health Organization (WHO) to stop its closed-door meetings with alcohol lobbyists, which allow companies that profit from alcoholic products to have unprecedented access to leaders who are responsible for advancing global health.

In early April the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance and Regional Alliances sent a letter to the Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, raising concerns about the WHO interaction with alcohol industry.

GAPA welcomes the third edition of Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity, written by an international team of addiction scientists and representing more than a decade of new research, explaining why alcohol policy is needed, how it is made, and the impact it has on health and well-being.

The new initiative launched to address neglected global health crisis of alcohol harms is supported with a $15 million philanthropic award that doubles existing global funding. RESET Alcohol will work in fifteen countries primarily in Latin America, Africa, Asia.

On Friday 27 May 2022, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted the Global Alcohol Action Plan, in the making for two years. GAPA welcomes the decision by the WHA. Now words must be followed by action, globally and in the member countries. For that, adequate resources are needed, particularly in low and middle-income countries to address global inequities.

The present draft Alcohol action plan will be discussed at the WHA75. Given its background and its bundling into the NCD suite of documents, GAPA support the adoption of the compromise text as it is. If, however, the matter is opened for negotiations in the WHA, GAPA recommends promoting the following in the action plan.

Coming up to the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) deliberations on the Global Alcohol Action Plan the World Medical Association (WMA) and the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance (GAPA) have issued a joint statement welcoming the WHO commitment to boost the dynamic by developing an action plan (2022-2030) to effectively implement the Global strategy on alcohol.

The WHO Alcohol Action Plan will be coming up at the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) in the end of May 2022. GAPA has issued the following policy position for the WHO deliberation of the Alcohol Action Plan.

In March World Health Organization European Regional Office conducted a public consultation to reduce alcohol consumption. GAPA made a submission.

GAPA congratulates the World Heart Federation with the publication of its policy brief: The Impact of Alcohol Consumption on Cardiovascular Health: Myths and Measures. In support of the policy brief GAPA issued the short statement.