Globally, alcohol contributes to 2.6 million deaths each year. And while it is increasingly recognized as a critical risk factor for many noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and injuries, it is rarely at the forefront of the public health agenda. The first philanthropically funded effort of its kind, the RESET Alcohol initiative is working to implement evidence-based alcohol policies in priority countries around the world.
On May 6-8, 2025, in Mexico City, RESET partners, including national and international experts in alcohol policy, economics, advocacy and communication, gathered with government officials to share advances, challenges and lessons learned from their alcohol policy work thus far. Participants from Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines and South Africa walked away with practical tools, an outline of principles for taxing alcohol and heightened enthusiasm for alcohol policy work. Among the highlights:
1. Partners Are Building the Case for a Public Health Approach to Alcohol Policy
RESET Alcohol is part of a budding collective that seeks to reframe how people think about alcohol: not as an individual problem, but rather as a public health issue that requires population-level policy solutions. And with reason: Alcohol contributes to over 200 types of adverse health outcomes (including cancer, liver and heart disease, road crashes, suicides, violence, and more) and research from RESET partners from the last two years consistently shows the enormous economic burden of alcohol on societies.
The meeting was an opportunity to reiterate the initiative’s commitment to evidence-based policies that reduce these harms from alcohol, particularly increasing alcohol taxation to levels that raise the price.
2. We Are Laser Focused on Alcohol Taxes, a Pillar of Health Taxes
Health taxes save lives by decreasing the overall consumption of harmful consumer products. They also generate much needed revenue for governments at a time when national budgets are tight, and health costs are rising.
That’s why Vital Strategies champions increasing taxes on alcohol, ultra-processed foods and tobacco. As a global initiative specifically focused on increasing alcohol taxation, RESET Alcohol convenes national and international tax experts to build this nascent field and grow the breadth and depth of tax policy dialogue in RESET countries.
During the partner meeting, experts sought to come to a consensus on the general principles about how to tax alcohol products most effectively for public health and fiscal benefits. To guide RESET country partners in their advocacy, they created performance indicators allowing partners to assess the effectiveness of their country’s alcohol taxes (soon available on the Economics for Health website). Finally, partners discussed the advantages and challenges of advocating for alcohol taxes as part of a broader health tax package, along with tobacco and ultra-processed foods.
“In two short years, government officials, economists, advocates and communication specialists are demonstrating that policy makers and the public are both receptive to messages about the harms of alcohol and open to proven policy solutions like raising taxes on alcohol products. RESET Alcohol partners closed their meeting with full clarity this hitherto neglected issue is gaining the traction it deserves alongside other harmful products like tobacco and ultra-processed foods.”
– Jacqui Drope, Managing Director, RESET Alcohol Policy initiative
3. We’re Making Progress on Tax Policy
Over the past year, RESET Alcohol partners made tremendous strides in developing tax scenarios and alcohol consumption models, cost analyses, tax policy scorecards and survey data – only a few of the key research outcomes shared at the partner meeting. These resources are building a novel research base for advocacy and communication and enabling civil society and academic partners to actively support governments seeking to increase alcohol taxes. Progress is further accelerated by heeding lessons from tobacco control and food policy, building and utilizing coalitions and partnerships, and monitoring the alcohol industry. In addition, innovative integrated media campaigns are successfully raising concern among the public and legislators about the harms of alcohol – allowing RESET partners to make the case for alcohol tax policy.
4. In RESET Partner Countries, Health Harms and Alcohol-Related Violence Are Top of Mind – and This Should Influence How We Talk to the Public About Alcohol
In 2024, two countries in the RESET Alcohol initiative – Brazil and Mexico – launched integrated media campaigns with strong reach and media impact. At the partner meeting, country teams explained how they leveraged new economic data on alcohol’s staggering costs to society as well as polling results to create evidence-based campaigns and effective earned media strategies.
Participants discussed key findings from public opinion polling on alcohol – conducted in all RESET countries – and found common ground in the fact that violence and health harms were consistently among the most pressing concerns raised by respondents. This important knowledge has equipped RESET partners to develop targeted messages for maximum impact in 2025.
To learn more about Vital Strategies’ effort to reduce the harms of alcohol, please visit the RESET Alcohol initiative.