4. How do social aspects organizations work?

Social aspects organizations manage issues that may be detrimental to the beverage alcohol industry in five main ways:

  1. Attempting to influence the alcohol policies of national and international governmental and integrational organizations;

  2. Becoming members of relevant non-alcohol specific organizations and committees to broaden policy influence and respectability;

  3. Recruiting scientists, hosting conferences and promoting high profile publications;

  4. Creating social aspects organizations in emerging markets and low income countries; and

  5. Preparing and promoting consensus statements and codes of practice.

Each of these methods of working will be illustrated with examples, in turn.

4.1 Attempting to influence the alcohol policies of national and international governmental and integrational organizations

Since social aspects organizations were set up by the beverage alcohol industry to represent the industry in policy debate and in social and public discourse about the harm done by alcohol, it is not surprising that one of their priority methods of work is to attempt to influence the alcohol policies of national and international governmental and integrational organizations. Key targets for influence are the World Health Organization, and within Europe, the European Commission.

The European Office of the World Health Organization was one of the first offices of the organization to develop a strategy to reduce the harm done by alcohol, the European Alcohol Action Plan, endorsed by its Member States in 1992 (62). In the preparation of the second Action Plan, which runs from 2000 to 2005, the relations with the beverage alcohol industry were a concern, since the Plan contains some references to the role of industry and commerce (63). It proposes, for example, that the beverage alcohol industry and the hospitality sector develop and implement programmes to reduce alcohol-related problems in the drinking environment. After the World Health Organization held a meeting with the Amsterdam Group, the Group delivered an extensive critique of the Plan, explaining the industry's standpoint and offering suggestions for incorporating this into the text (64).

The Amsterdam group proposed, for example changing the terms 'the harm done by alcohol' into 'alcohol misuse' and 'the risk of alcohol related problems' into 'consequences of misuse'. They proposed to delete the statement 'alcohol is a psychoactive drug'. They proposed to delete the sentence 'Alcohol use and alcohol related harm, such as drunkenness, binge-drinking and alcohol related social problems are common among adolescents and young people in Western Europe' and to delete the phrase 'place restrictions on the sponsorship by the drinks industry on sports'. They proposed that the heading 'Responsibilities of the beverage alcohol industry and hospitality sector' should be rephrased as 'Industry-society partnerships to reduce alcohol misuse'. They were against high visibility random breath testing, but favoured drink driving educational campaigns.

At the global level, the World Health Organization has put forward proposals for a global alcohol policy (65). The International Center for Alcohol Policies noting that the Director General of the World Health Organization has established an alcohol policy scientific advisory committee, whose mandate includes being a forum for dialogue with the industry, suggested that (66):

"The World Health Organization consider inviting the International Center for Alcohol Policies to interact with members of their alcohol policy scientific advisory committee, to prepare relevant documents for their consideration, and to be invited to participate in discussions on relevant topics at one or more future meetings of the committee so that the International Center for Alcohol Policies could contribute in a positive and collegiate way to other and wider alcohol policy discussions."

In attempting to influence the policy of the European Commission through developing common standards for commercial communication, as part of the beverage alcohol industry's response to a European Parliament Green Paper Sales Promotion in the internal market and to the Draft Proposal for a European Council recommendation on the drinking of alcohol by Children and Adolescents, the Amsterdam Group laid down the following principles for alcohol policy (67):

  • Recognise the limitations of regulation and that individuals need to take responsibility for their drinking behaviour;

  • Address the particular needs of young people to enable them to make informed choices about drinking;

  • Recognise the social, cultural and historical diversity of European societies, and therefore permit European countries to develop and implement alcohol strategies that meet their own particular needs, consistent with the principle of subsidiarity;

  • Be proportionate, i.e. that the planned measures must be necessary for the achievement of the intended aim and should not go beyond that which is necessary to achieve their objective; and

  • Involve all relevant stakeholders in both the public and private sectors, including the drinks industry, health professionals and governments.

4.2 Becoming members of relevant alcohol and non-alcohol specific organizations and committees to broaden policy influence and respectability

At important method of working is for officials and members of social aspects organizations to become members of relevant alcohol and non-alcohol specific organizations and committees. Such membership gives social aspects organizations the appearance of respectability and credibility and broadens their policy influence.

The Global Compact

The International Center for Alcohol Policies is a member of the Global Compact, which was launched by the United Nations Secretary-General at the World Economic Forum in January 1999 (68). The Global Compact invited the world's business leaders to help build the social and environmental pillars required to sustain the new global economy and make globalization work for the entire world's people. The Global Compact is a value-based platform designed to promote institutional learning. It utilizes the power of transparency and dialogue to identify and disseminate good practices based on nine universal principles drawn from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labor Office's Fundamental Principles on Rights at Work and the Rio Principles on Environment and Development.

In accepting its invitation to join the Global Compact, the International Center for Alcohol Policies listed the following good practices (69):

  • "The Dublin Principles, setting out ethical standards for cooperation in alcohol research;

  • The Global Charter on Alcohol, which seeks to balance the responsibilities of business, government, and academic and research bodies as they relate to individual freedom and choice;

  • First Vice Chairmanship of the Global Road Safety Partnership;

  • A life skills education project for primary schools in South Africa and Botswana;

  • Dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women; and

  • Collaboration with the International Labor Office and the International Council on Alcohol and Addictions to train workers in the hospitality industry."

The Global Road Safety Partnership

The President of the International Center for Alcohol Policies is the First Vice Chairmanship of the Global Road Safety Partnership (70), a joint World Bank and Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies initiative under the coordination of the United Kingdom's Business Partners for Development (BPD) project to reduce the number of lives lost unnecessarily in traffic accidents, with the developing world being a special priority.

However, in its report number 11, Blood Alcohol Concentration Limits Worldwide, the International Center for Alcohol Policies argues that, since most drinking drivers have blood alcohol concentrations below the legal limit in their jurisdiction, lowering the limits could be perceived as an unwelcome policy change, infringing on the established drinking behaviour of a great many people (71). The report argues that focused measures aimed at those drivers whose drinking patterns may result in reckless behaviour are the effective measure for harm reduction that should be implemented, including increased public education on the risks associated with drink-driving, training staff at licensed premises to recognize intoxication among patrons, and the availability of alternatives to driving, such as free taxi service. As noted above, though, these policy measures are those for which the evidence has been shown to be ineffective, whereas the effective policy measures, such as high visibility random breath testing and lowering the legal limit of blood alcohol concentrations are not proposed by the International Center for Alcohol Policies.

4.3 Recruiting scientists, hosting conferences and promoting high profile publications

A key work of social aspects organizations is to gain credibility and respectability through recruiting scientists and national and international public health officials as partners, contributors to their publications, members of their conferences and signatories to their policy statements. The institutional affiliations of recruited scientists are promoted by social aspects organizations to their best advantage.

Scientists are used by social aspects organizations to promote their standpoints, ideologies and viewpoints and to discredit scientific findings inconsistent with these standpoints. When the landmark publication Alcohol Policy and the Public Good was published, scientists were offered £2000 by the United Kingdom's Portman Group to "rubbish" the report and to permit their criticisms to be published with or without their names (72).

Considerable emphasis is placed on the role of the World Health Organization and the recruitment and involvement of its staff members in the conferences and publications of social aspects organizations. Taking stock in 2000, when the International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) was five years old, its founder and president (and ex-staff member of the World Health Organization (WHO) responsible for alcohol policy) wrote (73):

"I believe that I have contributed more to public health in my five years at ICAP than in double that time with WHO. This is not an empty boast. Nor is it intended in any way to diminish the impressive contribution which WHO makes to international health. Rather, it is because I am now privileged to have the opportunity to bring together all those who are willing to work together but have simply never before had a legitimate context within which to explore the extent of their capacity to cooperate. And what they find is that they can achieve much more together than any of them could in isolation. Which is why I see ICAP as a new force for public health."

4.4 Creating social aspects organizations in emerging markets and low income countries

It is no accident that Alcohol and emerging markets, the second volume in the International Center for Alcohol Policies' Series on Alcohol and Society reviewed patterns of alcohol consumption, problems and responses in the emerging markets of Africa, Asia, central and eastern Europe and Latin America (74). The publication provided a sound platform for the marketing of alcoholic products in emerging markets by the beverage alcohol industry, which has been followed through by the creation of social aspects organizations in, for example, India and China (Taiwan).

The example of India

Article 47 of the Constitution of India (75) incorporates prohibition among the directive principles of state policy:

"The state shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people as among its primary duties and, in particular, the state shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the use except for medicinal purposes of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health".

Although many individual states do not follow prohibition, annual per capita alcohol consumption remains very low, no more than about 1.5 litres of absolute alcohol per capita (76). Approximately 60% of the male population and almost all of the female population do not drink alcoholic beverages. With a view to changing the culture of consuming alcoholic beverages and to be involved in the development of alcohol policy in India, the International Center for Alcohol Policies supported the creation of a social aspects organization, the Society for Alcohol and Social Policy Initiative.

In the words of the International Center for Alcohol Policies (77):

"Prohibition is enshrined as an aspiration in the Constitution of the country, yet there is now a vast emerging middle class eager to extend their opportunities to drink. Here, the social aspects organizations' first attempt to replace that climate with mutual trust was apparently less than successful. A small group of Indian public health experts, who had initially expressed cautious interest in dialogue with the social aspects organization, quickly realized how forcefully some of their colleagues disapproved of it. The industry, too, remained sceptical of what might be achieved, and local Indian companies in particular were reluctant to become involved. Yet now, four years after the first attempt to create dialogue in India, there is a functioning Social Aspects Organization (SAO) supported by the industry and numbering as advisors some of those same public health experts. What the social aspects had done was to demonstrate the possibility of dialogue and to help people to start thinking in terms of partnership".

In India, the Society for Alcohol and Social Policy Initiative (SASPI) (78) is:

"Undertaking a project to gauge the perspectives on alcohol held by a diverse cross section of society in order to design and implement education programmes that will help prevent the abuse of alcohol. Education programmes will be aimed at various levels so that they address the disparity between urban/rural, rich/poor, literate/illiterate divides that exist in India as well as address the differing issues that will be prevalent amongst them. SASPI plans to work in the area of advocacy to bring about an environment of trust and responsibility between policy makers, the industry and society towards the common goal of preventing alcohol abuse in the long run, without adversely affecting the economy."

4.5 Preparing and promoting consensus statements, codes of practice and standards

An important area of work for social aspects organizations is the preparation and promotion of consensus statements, codes of practice and standards.

The Dublin Principles

In 1997, the president of the National College of Ireland, a non profit higher education college established in 1951 to facilitate access to education for all groups, published the Dublin Principles of Cooperation among the Beverage Alcohol Industry, Governments, and Scientific Researchers together with the International Center for Alcohol Policies (79). The Dublin principles cover both alcohol and society and alcohol research. Item 1c of the Principles deals with the harm done by alcohol and the measures to reduce the harm:

"Consumption of alcohol is associated with a variety of beneficial and adverse health and social consequences, both to the individual and to society.

Governments, intergovernmental organizations, the public health community, and members of the beverage alcohol industry, individually and in cooperation with others, should take appropriate measures to combat irresponsible drinking and inducements to such drinking. These measures could include research, education, and support of programs addressing alcohol-related problems."

It should be noted that the National College of Ireland, an educational and scientific body, proposes in its Principles those policy options known to be ineffective and fails to include those policy options known to be effective in reducing the harm done by alcohol.

The Geneva Partnership on Alcohol

The International Center for Alcohol Policies brought together "specialists from the alcohol industry, the field of public health and others involved in policy making" to draft a global charter, the Geneva Partnership on Alcohol, in 2000 (80). The Charter is

"intended as a policy tool to assist in alcohol policy development at the international, national and local level".

The Geneva Partnership on alcohol emphasizes the need to bring people together to forge a common language.

Its preamble states:

"There is a growing recognition of the importance of establishing stronger relations between the public and private sectors at the international level. In this context, ICAP has taken the initiative to develop an agenda for partnership as a contribution to the global debate on alcohol policy. This document breaks new ground by identifying and promoting the complementary interests of the public health and scientific communities, the beverage alcohol industry, governments and the non-governmental sector. It builds upon the Dublin Principles and acknowledges the efforts of international organizations to develop alcohol policy. In its preparation, which has involved an extensive process of consultation, including regional and global meetings, input has been sought from a wide range of people involved in alcohol policy development, with the objective of formulating general principles mutually acceptable to all parties."

References:

62 The European Alcohol Action Plan 1992-1999. Copenhagen, World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe.

63 The European Alcohol Action Plan 2000-2005. Copenhagen, World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe.

64 Quoted in Rutherford, D. The Amsterdam Group. The Globe. Alcohol industry's social aspects groups exposed. www.ias.org.uk.

65 Towards a global alcohol policy: alcohol, public health and the role of WHO Jernigan D.H., Monteiro M., Room, R. & Saxena S. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2000, 78 491-499.

66 International Center for Alcohol Policies. Industry Views on beverage Alcohol Advertising and Marketing, with Special Reference to Young People. www.icap.org.

67 Commercial Standards for Commercial Communication 2002 www.amsterdamgroup.org.

68 www.unglobalcompact.org.

69 www.icap.org.

70 http://www.grsproadsafety.org/ .

71 International Center for Alcohol Policies. Blood alcohol concentration limits worldwide. ICAP Reports 11. www.icap.org.

72 Rows over drinks industry attempt to rubbish alcohol report, Alcohol Alert, April 1995, 20, 2-3.

73 Grant, M. A New Force for Health. International Center for Alcohol Policies. http://www.icap.org/.

74 Grant, M. Ed. Alcohol and Emerging Markets London, Taylor & Francis, 1998.

75 Arora, M. Alcohol in India The Globe Special Issue 4, 2001-02 www.ias.org.uk.

76 Global status report on alcohol. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2000.

77 Grant, M. A New Force for Health. International Center for Alcohol Policies. http://www.icap.org/.

78 www.education.vsnl.com/saspi.

79 The Dublin Principles of Cooperation Among the Beverage Alcohol Industry, Governments, Scientific Researchers, and the Public Health Community. www.ncir.ie/info/dubprin/welcome.html.

80 International Center for Alcohol Policies. The Geneva partnership on alcohol. Towards a global charter. www.icap.org.