Alcohol policy in an international context

Alcohol Policy In An International Context Reinforce the family – “For a better and sustainable future”

Sven-Olov Carlsson, International President, IOGT International

IFNGO – OFAP Joint 2013 Conference, Macau, 21-25 October 2013

/ 2013-10-21 to 25 – Sven-Olov Carlsson, International President

Scoop for this presentation Alcohol policy in an international context. Reinforce the family – “For a better and sustainable future”


Structure for this presentation Alcohol Policy In An International Context. Reinforce the family – “For a better and sustainable future”

Alcohol as the most harmful drug -  Comparative risk analysis in WHO’s estimation of

the global burden of disease -  Alcohol’s social harm (harms to others) Responses to alcohol as health and social issue at international level -  The globalisation of the alcohol market -  New initiatives in the 2010s -  WHO Global Alcohol Strategy -  NCDs global action plan and monitoring framework


Structure for this presentation Alcohol Policy In An International Context. Reinforce the family – “For a better and sustainable future”

Responses to alcohol harm in the future -  Moving towards international treaty coverage of

alcohol control

Questions and answers, discussion



Alcohol as the Most harmful Drug


Alcohol as the most harmful drug Alcohol Policy In An International Context. Reinforce the family – “For a better and sustainable future”

Comparative risk analysis in WHO’s estimation of global burden of disease (GBD) -  Important role of alcohol in death and disability, particularly in middle-

and high-income countries

-  Alcohol 2nd among psychoactive substances to tobacco as risk factor for harm to the user; both far outrank all illicit drugs together

-  Alcohol accounts for 3.9% of the total burden of disease globally

-  Substantial harms from alcohol use to others; these harms are mostly not included in the GBD frame



Responses to alcohol As health and social Issue at international Level


Responses to alcohol as health and social issue at international level

Alcohol Policy In An International Context. Reinforce the family – “For a better and sustainable future”

The globalisation of the alcohol market -  Accelerated rate of economic globalization has increasingly rendered

obsolete old assumption that alcohol issues are local issues -  Globalization affects alcohol issues in three main ways:

-  Influence of a global ideology of free markets -  Effectively reduced the ability of national and

subnational governments to control their local alcohol markets

-  Alcohol production, distribution, and marketing have became increasingly globalized driven by Big Alcohol that’s thirsting for new markets




Beware of #BigAlcohol




New initiatives in the 2010s -  2005 World Health Assembly (WHA) passed new resolution on

alcohol, the first in over 20 years

-  New impetus has been provided by the 2011 UN decision to put a global focus on preventing and controlling non-communicable diseases (NCDs)

-  Alcohol is recognised as one of the major risk factors for NCDs

-  These documents serve as the terms of reference for a UN “consultative process



Alcohol Policy In An International Context.




The WHO Global Alcohol Strategy (GAS) -  As used in GAS, the term “harmful use” is defined broadly, and in a

different sense from the use in the International Classification of Diseases

-  The Strategy discusses 10 areas for national action, under the headings:

-  leadership, awareness, and commitment -  health services' response; -  community action; -  drink-driving policies and countermeasures;




The WHO Global Alcohol Strategy (GAS) -  The Strategy discusses 10 areas for national action, under the

headings: -  availability of alcohol; -  marketing of alcoholic beverages;

- pricing policies; -  reducing the negative consequences of drinking and

alcohol intoxication; -  reducing the public health impact of illicit alcohol and

informally produced alcohol; -  monitoring and surveillance.




The WHO Global Alcohol Strategy (GAS) -  A 2013 progress report to the WHA describes a number of steps that

have been taken under GAS -  A network of “national counterparts” has been set up and met in

2011.

-  The progress report ends by pointing out the mismatch between the needs and resources for mounting an effective global strategy




Alcohol in NCD monitoring framework, action plan, and implementation -  Close to half of the harm to user’s health from alcohol is in form of

Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) -  The harms happen primarily to middle-aged and older alcohol users

-  The aspect of alcohol use which is most closely connected to the risk of NCDs is the total volume of alcohol consumption.




Alcohol in NCD monitoring framework, action plan, and implementation -  Alcohol is addressed as one of the four main risk factors for NCDs in

the Global Action Plan for NCDs 2013-2020.

-  Terms in which alcohol has been included are considerably weaker than for other specific conditions or risk factors

-  The “voluntary global targets” agreed on for risk factors include 30% relative reductions in tobacco use and in salt intake, a 10% relative reduction in harmful use of alcohol




Alcohol in NCD monitoring framework, action plan, and implementation -  Among risk factors, countries are given three options of which

indicator of harmful use of alcohol to select: -  total annual alcohol consumption per person aged 15+; -  age-standardized prevalence of heavy episodic alcohol use

among adolescents and adults; -  alcohol-related morbidity and mortality among adolescents

and adults.

-  Action Plan sets out a variety of “policy options for member states” concerning each of the goals.




Alcohol in NCD monitoring framework, action plan, and implementation -  For alcohol, in contrast to tobacco, there is no specificity in the policy

options: the ten headings of the Global Strategy are reproduced, without elaboration

-  Otherwise governments are left on their own, with a recommendation to “formulate public health policies and interventions to reduce the harmful use of alcohol based on clear public health goals, existing best practices, best-available knowledge and evidence of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness generated in different contexts”.



Responses to Alcohol harm in The future


Responses to alcohol harm in the future Alcohol Policy In An International Context. Reinforce the family – “For a better and sustainable future”

Moving towards international treaty coverage of alcohol control -  Comparative risk analysis in WHO’s estimation of GBD has

underlined substantial role of alcohol in death and disability, particularly in middle- and high-income countries

-  There’re substantial harms from alcohol to others, which are mostly not included in the GBD frame (Laslett et al., 2011)

-  A need for more specific international agreement on action on alcohol than is contained in the Global Strategy?


Any other questions? Time for discussion


Sven-Olov Carlsson International President [email protected]

+46 70 554 99 89

IOGT International

@IOGTInt #LifeSetFree #HeartDriven

www.iogt.org

Final slide: / 2013-10-21 to 25 – Sven-Olov Carlsson, International President

Thank you for your attention and participation.

Alcohol policy in an international context

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