Are We Moving Into a New Era For Alcohol Policy Globally?

Are We Moving Into a New Era For Alcohol Policy Globally?  Season 3, Episode 10

For the tenth episode in our third season we discuss the question of whether we’re moving into a new era for alcohol policy globally.

Together with Dr Matt Lesch we’re telling a story that change how you view the challenges, opportunities and progress in global alcohol policy. 

In this podcast episode, host Maik Dünnbier speaks with Matt about two of his studies that investigate the state and development of global alcohol policy over the past 14 years – from the adoption of the WHO Global Alcohol Strategy in 2010 to the adoption of the WHO Global Alcohol Action Plan in 2022.

They talk about why both policy documents matter and what their significance is. Matt compares the Global Alcohol Strategy and the Global Alcohol Action Plan and this analysis allows to identify key themes and to assess whether the Action Plan is an advancement for global alcohol policy.

The conversation takes place at the intersection of global health, political science, and real world policy making. And Maik and Matt dive into topics that are relevant for policy makers and alcohol policy advocates alike.

Together they talk about how the alcohol industry, their fundamental conflict of interest and their interference against WHO-recommended alcohol policy is being tackled and whether this marks a step in the right direction of protecting public policy making from corporate interests.

And they explore the pros and cons of whether these developments pave the way towards a new era for global alcohol policy.

Our guest

Dr Matt Lesch is a lecturer at the University of York, in the UK.

Matt’s expertise lies in the politics of policymaking. He has an interdisciplinary research agenda situated at the intersection of comparative public policy, political science, and public health.

His main research interests include ideas and policy change, processes of policy transfer, and the politics of evidence-policy making. His research has explored these issues in several different domains, including alcohol policy, public health, and taxation.

Follow Matt’s work on LinkedIn.

Resources for the episode 

• Study from February 2024: “Are we moving into a new era for alcohol policy globally? An analysis of the Global Alcohol Action Plan 2022-30”
• Study from June 2024: “Continuities and change in alcohol policy at the global level: a documentary analysis of the 2010 Global Strategy for Reducing the Harmful Use of Alcohol and the Global Alcohol Action Plan 2022–2030”
• The WHO Global Alcohol Strategy from 2010 (PDF)
• Movendi International resource page about the WHO Global Alcohol Strategy
• The WHO Global Alcohol Action Plan from 2022 (PDF)
• Movendi International resource page about the WHO Global Alcohol Action Plan
• Report: Big Alcohol Attempts to Undermine WHO Global Action Plan
• News story from May 2022: “World Health Assembly Adopts Historic Global Alcohol Action Plan. Movendi International Makes Four Recommendations For the Way Forward”
• The Alcohol Issues Podcast episode with Prof. Amandine Garde: “A Human Rights Based Approach to Alcohol Policy: the WHO Global Alcohol Action Plan and Beyond”

Feedback

Your feedback, questions, and suggestions for future topics and guests is most welcome. Please get in touch at maik.duennbier@movendi.ngo.

You are most welcome to follow Movendi International and Maik Dünnbier on LinkedIn, too.