Globally, alcohol consumption contributes to 2.6 million deaths each year, burdens health systems and costs economies billions. The policy interventions we promote aim to reset the current environment in most countries, where alcohol products are too affordable, too accessible, and relentlessly marketed by an industry that doesn’t acknowledge the harms alcohol causes.
Globally, 10% of deaths among people aged 15 to 49 are related to alcohol. Progress making alcohol a public health priority has been slow, but the way forward is clear. Cost-effective, high-impact and evidence-based alcohol policies are proven to reduce alcohol harms and create an environment that supports and encourages public health.
A first of its kind, RESET Alcohol is a global initiative that brings together national governments, civil society, researchers, and leaders in public health and alcohol policy to implement three alcohol best-buy policies from the World Health Organization’s SAFER technical package for alcohol policy: increasing taxation, regulating availability and restricting marketing. RESET Alcohol provides financial, technical, communication and advocacy support to governments, civil society organizations and research institutions, primarily in Latin America, Africa and Asia. See where we work.
Areas of Focus
RESET Alcohol supports population-level policy interventions that reduce alcohol harms, focusing on tax increases on alcohol products to make them less affordable. We also support targeted efforts to regulate availability of alcohol products and restrict alcohol marketing that has become pervasive in our society. We support governments and research institutions to build the evidence they need to raise alcohol taxes and support local civil society to advocate for these policies. We promote strengthening of local policies, laws and regulations informed by current and local epidemiological data. And we encourage persuasive communication campaigns that generate policymaker and public buy-in for policies that reduce alcohol harms.
We support partners to develop and implement evidence-based advocacy for higher alcohol taxes, strong local policies, and strategies to address alcohol industry influence.
We support partners to build the evidence needed for governments to increase alcohol taxes.
We aim to curb the harms of alcohol by supporting stronger and more effective laws.
We support epidemiological data analysis of alcohol consumption and harms, and monitoring of local policies to inform advocacy, communication, and policy planning.
We support local partners to develop and implement evidence-based strategic communication on alcohol harms and policies, including message-tested media materials and strategically placed media campaigns. We support local surveys to understand public opinion so we can seek the best ways to encourage support for policy change that reduces alcohol consumption.
“We need policies that protect kids, make healthy choices the easy choices and check industry’s influence. RESET Alcohol is doing just that through strong partnerships with government and civil society leaders who are committed to action.”
—Adam Karpati, Senior Vice President, Public Health Programs at Vital Strategies
RESET Alcohol Sri Lankan partners waged a multifaceted campaign of research, advocacy, media outreach and grassroots activism to urge their Sri Lankan government to raise taxes on alcohol products. The result was a series of tax increases over the course of a year.
As part of the work to push for increased alcohol taxes, Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (ADIC-Sri Lanka) and Vital Strategies launched a public poll to learn about public knowledge of alcohol, attitudes towards its consumption and support for policy action to reduce alcohol harms in the country.
RESET Alcohol Sri Lankan partners waged a multifaceted campaign of research, advocacy, media outreach and grassroots activism to urge their Sri Lankan government to raise taxes on alcohol products. The result was a series of tax increases over the course of a year.
As part of the work to push for increased alcohol taxes, Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (ADIC-Sri Lanka) and Vital Strategies launched a public poll to learn about public knowledge of alcohol, attitudes towards its consumption and support for policy action to reduce alcohol harms in the country.
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