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Drinks industry supplanting government role in alcohol policies in Sub-Saharan Africa
The drinks industry has usurped the role of the national governments and drafted the national alcohol strategies of several Sub-Saharan countries[1] with the aim of safeguarding its own economic interests.
The drafts that have been reviewed by Forut (Campaign for Development and Solidarity), advance the interests of SABMiller, Carlsberg and other multinational alcohol producers, rather than containing effective strategies to protect public health.
The representatives of Forut suspect that these are merely an attempt to pre-empt governmental action and, in particular, to head off the impact of the WHA resolution on a global alcohol strategy, approved last 22 May.
The International Centre for Alcohol Policies (ICAP), backed by SABMiller, Carlsberg and other drinks companies, seems to be behind this regional effort in Southern Africa.
The policy drafts ignore the international evidence base on alcohol prevention developed by independent alcohol researchers working for the World Health Organization.
Indeed, industry proposals fail to adopt a public health approach to alcohol related problems. They put the blame on the drinkers and give priority to interventions that target individual ‘problem drinkers'.
The text of the strategies lays emphasis on the acceptability of alcohol consumption and on the economic role of the alcohol industry, rather than public health and safety considerations.
The policies promote self-regulation at the expense of government regulation of marketing and advertising of alcoholic beverages.
The proposed policies would inappropriately enshrine “active participation of all levels of the beverage alcohol industry as a key partner in the policy formulation and implementation process.”
The ICAP proposals are clearly not specifically tailored to the situation in the individual countries, or the Sub-Saharan region as a whole; in fact, they fail to recognize the special needs of the developing world.
The various draft policies are virtual carbon copies of each other.
The industry documents propose laudable, but resource intensive, interventions related to education, information, treatment etc, without taking into account the health, police and education costs of implementing those interventions.
Contrary to industry claims, the proposed policies are not the result of broad national consultative processes; rather, they represent a “one size fits all” formula created by and for the alcoholic-beverage industry.
More information:
FORUT – Campaign for Development and Solidarity, Norway
Øystein Bakke (mobile) + 47 416 22 135, Dag Endal (mobile) +47 911 84 388
E-mail: dag.endal@forut.no or oystein.bakke@forut.no
[1] Malawi, Uganda, Lesotho, Ghana, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Zambia and possibly other countries.