Sugar, tobacco, and alcohol taxes to achieve the SDGs

Marten, Robert; Kadandale, Sowmya; Butler, John; Aguayo, Víctor M.; Axelrod, Svetlana; Banatvala, Nick; Bettcher, Douglas; Brumana, Luisa; Buse, Kent; Casswell, Sally; Dain, Katie; Glassman, Amanda; Heymann, David L.; Kickbusch, Ilona; Marquez, Patricio V.; Nordström, Anders; Paul, Jeremias; Peterson, Stefan; Ralston, Johanna; Rasanathan, Kumanan; Reddy, K. Srinath; Smith, Richard; Soucat, Agnès; Sperkova, Kristina; Thompson, Francis; Webb, Douglas

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(18)31219-4

Cited by 45 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…317 These efforts will likely be redoubled given increasing global calls for taxes on sugar, tobacco, and alcohol to reach the SDGs. 318 Further, implementation of such treaties might be slow to evolve because of challenges in domestic courts stemming from the interests of industries and corporations, which in some cases have acquired the same rights as people to fight government regulation. 319 Such potential obstacles are all the greater given that many multinational corporations have resources larger than some national governments and they are willing to defend their presumed rights in global tribunals, using existing agreements, such as those developed by the World Trade Organization.…”

Section: Initiating a Political Process To Secure A Legally Binding Imentioning

confidence: 99%

A future for the world's children? A WHO–UNICEF–Lancet Commission

Clark¹,

Coll-Seck

Banerjee³

et al. 2020

The Lancet

Self Cite

693

597

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Despite dramatic improvements in survival, nutrition, and education over recent decades, today's children face an uncertain future. Climate change, ecological degradation, migrating populations, conflict, pervasive inequalities, and predatory commercial practices threaten the health and future of children in every country. In 2015, the world's countries agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), yet nearly 5 years later, few countries have recorded much progress towards achieving them. This Commission presents the case for placing children, aged 0-18 years, at the centre of the SDGs: at the heart of the concept of sustainability and our shared human endeavour. Governments must harness coalitions across sectors to overcome ecological and commercial pressures to ensure children receive their rights and entitlements now and a liveable planet in the years to come.

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Section: Initiating a Political Process To Secure A Legally Binding Imentioning

confidence: 99%

A future for the world's children? A WHO–UNICEF–Lancet Commission

Clark¹,

Coll-Seck

Banerjee³

et al. 2020

The Lancet

Self Cite

693

597

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As such, an open door for commercial actors (bar the exception of tobacco and arms) and the idea that societal complexity requires public-private collaboration not only appears to facilitate opposition to safeguards against undue influence in public health policy, it also implies a stronger role for industry self-regulation. With experts increasingly calling for population-level, regulatory interventions to tackle NCDs in the face of a global lack of progress [19,118], industry framing of the issue promotes alternatives to regulation which may weaken such attempts at governing the commercial determinants of health. In contributing to our understanding of industry framing around preferred policies and governance approaches, our findings support non-industry actors involved in global-level policy debates to strengthen strategies to prevent industry interference, and to debunk or counter the identified arguments from a public health perspective.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-communicable disease governance in the era of the sustainable development goals: a qualitative analysis of food industry framing in WHO consultations

et al. 2020

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Background The UN system’s shift towards multistakeholder governance, now embedded in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), invites a broad range of actors, including the private sector, to the policymaking table. Although the tobacco industry is formally excluded from engagement, this approach provides opportunities for other unhealthy commodity industries to influence the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) non-communicable disease (NCD) agenda. Focusing on the food industry, this research maps which actors engaged with WHO consultations, and critically examines actors’ policy and governance preferences as well as the framing they employ to promote these preferences in the global context. Methods All written responses from food industry actors to publicly available NCD-relevant WHO consultations held between September 2015 and September 2018 were identified, totalling forty-five responses across five consultations. A qualitative frame analysis was conducted to identify policy positions expressed by respondents, as well as arguments and frames used to do so. Results Though no individual companies responded to the consultations, the majority of participating business associations had some of the largest multinational food corporations as members. Respondents overarchingly promoted non-statutory approaches and opposed statutory regulation and conflict of interest safeguards. To this purpose, they framed the food industry as a legitimate and necessary partner in policymaking, differentiating themselves from the tobacco industry and referencing a history of successful collaboration, while also invoking multistakeholder norms and good governance principles to portray collaboration as required. Respondents contrasted this with the limits of WHO’s mandate, portraying it as out of step with the SDGs and framing NCD decision-making as a matter of national sovereignty. Conclusion We observed that the UN’s call for partnerships to support the SDGs is invoked to defend corporate access to NCD policy. This highlights the need for more cautious approaches which are mindful of the commercial determinants of health. Systematic opposition to regulation and to governance approaches which may compromise commercial actors’ insider role in global health by food industry actors shown here, and the strategic use of the Sustainable Development agenda to this purpose, raises questions about the value of collaboration from the perspective of international health agencies such as WHO.

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“…Among the many opportunities for improving NCD related surveillance during adulthood, monitoring alcohol and tobacco use is particularly important for purposes of targeting interventions, monitoring progress, and advocacy. 34 Patterns related to tobacco and alcohol use, physical activity, and nutrition among adults should be measured alongside socioeconomic, demographic, or geographical variables. Population based surveillance can strengthen targeted cost effective approaches to NCD prevention and early intervention.…”

Section: Adulthoodmentioning

confidence: 99%