This week, world leaders gather in New York for the 80th UN General Assembly and the 4th High-Level Meeting on NCDs and Mental Health. Movendi International is there - raising ambition for alcohol policy, exposing industry interference, and advocating for people-centered solutions that promote health, rights, and sustainable development. The post Movendi at UNGA80: Driving Global Momentum on Alcohol Policy appeared first on Movendi International.| Movendi International
Over the past decade, Movendi International has contributed to moving alcohol taxation from the margins to the center of global health and development policy agendas. Kristina charts how Movendi helped drive this shift - from early setbacks in Addis Ababa to concrete country reforms and bold WHO commitments such as the new 3×35 Initiative. This is the story of persistence, justice, and how civil society can make a neglected but powerful solution a global priority. Kristina also shared her th...| Movendi International
WHO’s new "Saving Lives, Spending Less" report shows that scaling up cost-effective NCD “Best Buys” could save 12 million lives, prevent 28 million heart attacks and strokes, and generate over US$1 trillion in economic benefits by 2030. Alcohol policy stands out, with taxation, advertising bans, and common sense limits on availability delivering the second-highest return on investment among all interventions — nine dollars for every dollar invested. As such, the new WHO investment cas...| Movendi International
Colombia’s beer industry is flooding communities with ultra-cheap alcohol while blocking life-saving public health measures. Bavaria and Andina’s - meaning beer giants AB InBev and Heineken - predatory pricing policies, marketing and aggressive lobbying tactics are driving massive harm - especially among children and youth - while maximising private profits thanks to favourable and discriminatory tax treatment. It’s time to end this injustice: raising alcohol taxes is a powerful, proven...| Movendi International
The final UN Political Declaration on NCDs and Mental Health fails to deliver a meaningful response to alcohol harm, despite some modest gains. Movendi International’s in-depth analysis reveals how alcohol industry interference attacked the most meaningful elements of the draft text, resulting in six major missed opportunities in the final declaration - from deleted targets and omitted SAFER measures to vague language and a lack of accountability. This politically compromised outcome underm...| Movendi International
The final UN Political Declaration on NCDs and Mental Health includes all three alcohol policy Best Buys, highlights alcohol taxation, and acknowledges the commercial determinants of health and conflicts of interest. But it fails to deliver a fast-tracked alcohol policy response commensurate with the scale of alcohol harm. The declaration omits concrete targets, screening and brief interventions, the SAFER alcohol policy blueprint, and explicit recognition of alcohol industry interference. Mo...| Movendi International
Despite bold promises to prioritise prevention, the UK government has quietly abandoned key alcohol policy measures like minimum unit pricing and advertising restrictions - under pressure from alcohol industry lobbyists. New reporting by The Guardian reveals how alcohol industry front groups helped derail evidence-based policies, putting private profits before public health. Experts warn this retreat threatens people's health and lives as well as the future of the NHS itself.| Movendi International
We are the premier global network for development through alcohol prevention. We promote development on four levels - the personal, community, sociatal and global - through a comprehensive approach to tackling alcohol and other drugs as obstacles to development.| Movendi International
The Colombian government has unveiled a landmark tax reform that raises alcohol taxes as part of efforts to fund the 2026 budget and improve public health. The reform comes amid urgent health concerns: alcohol causes nearly 10,000 deaths annually in Colombia, is the top risk factor for death among 15- to 49-year-olds, and contributes to violence, self-harm, and traffic crashes. Civil society and community voices say this reform marks a turning point, ensuring the alcohol industry pays its fai...| Movendi International
Belgium is opposing a proposed EU regulation that would allow wines with up to 6% alcohol by volume to be labeled as “low-alcohol,” arguing that the term is misleading and could undermine public health. Belgian health authorities insist that such labeling breaks with established food law practices, risks giving consumers a false sense of safety, and should be replaced with the more accurate term “reduced alcohol content.” The final decision now rests with the European Parliament, wher...| Movendi International
A major U.S. government study confirming the link between alcohol and cancer has been buried by the Trump administration, despite being intended to inform the 2025 Dietary Guidelines. The Alcohol Intake and Health Study found that even low levels of alcohol use increase the risk of death and cancer, especially for women - but it was sidelined in favor of a scientifically inferior, alcohol industry-favored report from the National Academies. This suppression reflects the alcohol industry’s g...| Movendi International
Newly released government papers expose how Big Alcohol lobbyists in New Zealand worked to block effective alcohol policies. The Ministry of Health shared draft strategies with alcohol industry lobby groups, while withholding them from the public, and paused reforms after lobbying pressure. The documents reveal industry opposition to proven WHO measures such as higher taxes, lowered availability, and ending alcohol sponsorship in sport. They also show how the industry dismissed credible estim...| Movendi International
The 2025 UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs (UN HLM) is a historic opportunity to mobilise political leadership, increase investments, and generate commit to ambitious alcohol policy action to promote health and development for all. The current trends in alcohol consumption, harm, and policy indicate that the global target set for reducing population-level alcohol consumption will not be met by 2030. The 4th HLM on NCDs is a timely and critical opportunity to level up recognition of the need for a...| Movendi International
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The latest draft of the UN Political Declaration (Revision 3) brings back two references to alcohol policy best buys—barely avoiding complete meaninglessness. Yet the draft still falls short of previous global commitments to accelerate action, ignores WHO guidance, sidesteps the scientific evidence, and fails to match the scale of the alcohol burden.| Movendi International
Alcohol industry language, no alcohol policy action: UN Political Declaration on NCDs and Mental Health risks becoming meaningless. Alcohol industry interference in the drafting of the political declaration of the fourth high-level meeting on NCDs and mental health has quietly erased proven, cost-effective alcohol policy measures - despite alcohol being the leading risk factor for death and disease among young people worldwide. While tobacco is treated with specificity and urgency, alcohol po...| Movendi International
This article explores how countries are addressing cancer risks due to alcohol by highlighting effective strategies and the challenges they face. Which countries have - or will have - effective warning labels, which countries have state-of-the-art low-risk alcohol use guidelines, and are there public awareness efforts on alcohol and cancer? In addition to these questions, the article also exposes how the alcohol industry works to keep people in the dark about the alcohol and cancer link and...| Movendi International
What makes an advocacy campaign for alcohol excise tax increases successful? In this opinion column, Labram shares his first hand experiences and insights into how civil society in Ghana was able to overcome heavy alcohol industry opposition and succeeded in persuading and supporting law makers to improve alcohol, tobacco, and sugary drinks taxes. What were the concrete challenges? How did they work? What did they learn and what are the next steps? Labram provides compelling answers to all th...| Movendi International
VAST Ghana is stepping up for alcohol taxation. Following successful advocacy work for Ghana to raise alcohol taxes in 2023, VAST is now stepping up again to defend the public health achievement. The Excise Duty Act, with tax rates up to 47.5%, is credited with curbing alcohol harm, yet it now faces pushback from the alcohol industry. VAST Ghana urges lawmakers to resist pressure and instead strengthen tax policy by adopting a hybrid system and indexing for inflation.| Movendi International
The harm caused by the practices and products of the alcohol industry can be reversed through implementation of evidence-based, cost-effective and high-impact public policy measures: the alcohol policy best buys.| Movendi International
The Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania (Seimas) adopted amendments to the Law on Alcohol on June 1, 2017. The new alcohol policy measures raise the legal age for alcohol use, restrict hours of alcohol sales and ban alcohol advertising...| Movendi International
The latest World Health Organization (WHO) data show that Lithuania is among the top five countries that have reduced alcohol consumption the most over the past five years.| Movendi International
More Lithuanian young people are choosing the alcohol-free way of life, proving the efficacy of the Lithuanian alcohol policy model. Improved alcohol policy laws were adopted by Lithuania in June 2017. But there have been talks recently of weakening this policy model. However, that is not what the public wants. The Lithuanian people support the current effective alcohol policy model which protects their youth and children from harm.| Movendi International
The speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas) Viktorija Čmilyte-Nielsen has said the country's modern laws should be reviewed. Currently, Lithuania has comprehensive, world-class alcohol laws in place since 2017. The new laws are showing positive effects already. Yet the speaker believes the laws need reviewing and "replacing."| Movendi International
Movendi International has released a brand new episode of the Alcohol Issues podcast. For this fifth episode, we are talking with Nijole Gostautaite Midttun, the President of the Lithuanian Tobacco and Alcohol Control Coalition (NTAKK), about Lithuania is one of the most remarkable success stories of alcohol policy-making in the world. The latest podcast episode also discusses four new weekly highlights regarding alcohol issues in policy, science and industry revelations. In policy news, we t...| Movendi International
People who go alcohol-free or consume only small amounts of alcohol have lower risk of premature death and have a lower environmental impact, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. It is the first large study to directly evaluate the impacts of adherence to recommendations in the landmark 2019 EAT-Lancet report.| Movendi International