The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE)’s submission provides comments on the Draft updated Appendix 3 of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Action Plan 2013-2020.
Recommendations
FARE’s submission focuses on the actions relating to alcohol and uses headings referred to in Appendix 3.
Use of alcohol
- Amend the use of the term ‘harmful alcohol use’ to ‘alcohol use’ in the Global NCD Action Plan 2013-2020 to better reflect the latest available evidence.
Price (relating to A1: Increase in excise taxes on alcoholic beverages)
- Amend intervention A1 (increase in excise taxes on alcoholic beverages) to include minimum pricing policies as a fiscal measure to raise the price of alcohol.
Marketing (relating to A2: Enforcement of bans or comprehensive restrictions on alcohol advertising)
- Amend intervention A2 to “Enforcement of bans or comprehensive restrictions on alcohol advertising, promotion and sponsorship across all types of media, including modern means of communication.”
Availability (relating to A3: Enforcement of restrictions on the physical availability of retailed alcohol)
- Amend intervention A3 to “Enforcement of restrictions on the physical availability of retailed alcohol (via reduced density of retail outlets, reduced hours of sale and minimum legal purchase age laws).”
Overarching/enabling actions
- That the World Health Organization develop Guidelines for Member States to support them in preventing, identifying and managing conflicts of interest when implementing policies to reduce NCDs.
