Bangkok 2002 - Recommendations of the GAPA consultation

Recognizing the burden of social harm, injury and disease done by alcohol; noting that the Asia Pacific Region, and in particular its young people, is a target of market expansion of the alcohol industry; and welcoming the World Health Report 2002 which alerts governmental and non-governmental bodies to the fact that 4% of the total disease burden of the world is attributable to alcohol, the consultation of the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance, which took place in Bangkok, 15-16 December 2002, calls on:

International governmental and non-governmental organizations to give greater priority to reducing the burden of disease caused by alcohol; in particular the World Health Organization to strengthen its action on alcohol by preparing and implementing an international strategy to combat and prevent the rising trend in alcohol consumption and alcohol related harm in the world.

All countries to develop appropriately resourced evidence based alcohol control policies that promote effective and cost effective strategies to reduce the harm done by alcohol; to ban the promotion of alcohol by means of advertising and sponsorship, recognizing that codes of practice and self-regulation by the alcohol industry do not work; to constantly monitor the marketing strategies of the alcohol industry with particular regard to young people and women;

Governments to formulate and deliver their alcohol policies for the public good, independent of the commercial interests of the alcohol industry;

Governments to provide funding for capacity building of relevant governmental sectors and non-governmental organizations to plan, develop and implement effective programmes for alcohol control, recognizing the examples of good practice of the Ministry of Health of Thailand, the Ministry of Health of Malaysia and other jurisdictions such as the State of Victoria, Australia;

Governments to ensure that, in the interest of public health, alcohol policies are not subordinate to the current negotiations on GATS of the World Trade Organization; and

The meeting expressed concern over the growth of social aspect organizations which have been set up by the alcohol industry in industrialised countries and are now spreading to developing countries.

The meeting supported the critique published by Eurocare 'The beverage alcohol industry's social aspects organizations' and endorsed its recommendations on relationships with social aspects organizations of the alcohol industry.

Governments need to implement evidence based policies to reduce the harm done by alcohol, with such policies formulated by public health interests, recognizing that the viewpoints of social aspects organizations are not impartial and represent the vested interests of the beverage alcohol industry.

Governmental organizations should be concerned at spending public money on the programmes and policies put forward by the social aspects organizations, since such programmes and policies lack evidence of effectiveness.

A proportion of alcohol taxes, hypothecated for the purpose, should be used to fund relevant independent non-governmental organizations to implement evidence based campaigns to reduce the harm done by alcohol.

Governments should support nongovernmental organizations that are independent of the beverage alcohol industry and that promote initiatives aimed at reducing the harm done by alcohol, recognizing that critical appraisal of government policy should not call financial support for non-governmental organizations into question.

Independent non-governmental organizations that have a specific role with regard to safeguarding effective alcohol policy should inform and mobilize civil society with respect to alcohol-related problems, lobby for implementation of effective policy at government level, and expose any harmful actions of the beverage alcohol industry.

In discharging their role, and in maintaining their respect with civil society, non-governmental organizations mentioned in point 5 above should remain completely independent of social aspects organizations and any communications between such non-governmental organizations and social aspects organizations should be transparent, and placed in the public domain.

All independent scientists that are paid by or undertake work for social aspects organizations and the beverage alcohol industry should state their declarations of interest in their scientific publications.

Research scientists in high income countries should consider their ethical responsibility not to profit from or contribute to the beverage alcohol industry's actions in low income countries which often lack the infrastructure to respond to and effectively regulate the beverage alcohol industries' marketing practices.

Greater vigilance and monitoring of beverage alcohol industry behaviour is needed, especially issues of intelligence-gathering; image management actions such as industry-initiated dialogues; active agenda-setting in the areas of research or publishing, with a particular emphasis on so-called beneficial patterns of drinking; and the image transfer effect of industry connections with reputable scientists and public health organizations.