Key Recent Milestones:
· Brazil: The Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in June, marked the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Key milestones from the conference included The Future We Want outcome document, which makes a commitment to road safety.
Global Actions in Focus: Self-Regulation in Rwanda
The Self-Regulation initiative of Global Actions consists of three primary areas of activity relating to the marketing and advertising of beverage alcohol: 1) establishing beverage alcohol industry codes at national level; 2) strengthening cross-industry self-regulatory systems; and 3) adopting Guiding Principles for Responsible Beverage Alcohol Marketing. Our partners in these initiatives are the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA).
In Rwanda, where a self-regulation structure did not yet exist, Global Actions has been working with local partners to develop and implement a beverage alcohol industry-specific responsible marketing code.
Meetings have been held with key stakeholders from industry and the Ministry of Health, Rwanda Bureau of Standards, and the government agency responsible for radio and television.
On June 13, two major brewers, Brasseries et Limonaderies du Rwanda Limited (Bralirwa), and East African Breweries Limited (EABL), signed the Code of Communications for Beverage Alcohol. The Code commits the companies to abide by the standards set by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), requiring all advertising to be legal, decent, honest, and prepared with a sense of responsibility.
The signatories agreed that beverage alcohol marketing communications should never target youth, pregnant women, or other at risk groups, and that advertisements should never encourage risky behaviors such as over-consumption or drink driving or suggest that alcohol is essential to success.
What’s Happening Next:
· China: Interventions for Global Actions drink driving campaigns in Xi’an and Nanjing are confirmed to launch in July.
