Global Actions, November 14, 2012

Key Recent Milestones:

· Rwanda: ICAP held a meeting with key industry stakeholders in Kigali on November 7, 2012 to finalize plans for setting up the first self-regulation industry association in Rwanda.

Global Actions in Focus: Noncommercial Alcohol Monograph

The International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) recently published “Producers, sellers, and drinkers: studies of noncommercial alcohol in nine countries.” The study draws together the results of research conducted from 2010 to 2012 as part of Global Actions’ Noncommercial Alcohol initiative.

The objective of the research was to measure the nature and extent of unrecorded alcohol production and consumption in nine low and middle-income countries: Belarus, Botswana, Brazil, China, India, Kenya, Mexico, Russia, and Sri Lanka. Each chapter is written by a local researcher presenting the context of drinking and culture, describing the study design and key findings, and discussing implications for policy and prevention.

In countries such as China, Botswana, and Kenya, traditional noncommercial beverages are legal within certain contexts and their production and sale may be regulated to some degree by local authorities. Russia and Belarus have national regulations governing the sale and production of noncommercial alcohol.

The case of Belarus suggests that with proper enforcement, reductions in consumption of noncommercial alcohol can be achieved. In other countries, enforcement is either weak or obstructed by corruption, as is noted in the country study on Mexico. In Sri Lanka, researchers point to a series of steps to curb consumption of the illicit distilled beverage kasippu .

(Photo shows a secluded illicit alcohol distillery in a Sri Lanka jungle).

For more on ICAP publications, visit: http://icap.org/Publications/tabid/60/Default.aspx.

What’s Happening Next:

· Thailand: ICAP together with Thai Foundation for Responsible Drinking and the Population and Community Development Association will host a seminar on noncommercial alcohol study in Thailand on November 19^th, 2012 in Bangkok. Participants are experts in public health and policy, research, excise, disaster prevention and mitigation, and drug dependence research. The seminar aims to draw conclusions from the survey for health policy and direction for future research.