Scope and purpose
In May 2005 the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution on public health problems caused by harmful use of alcohol. In the resolution, the Director-General is requested to organize open consultations with representatives of the industry, agriculture and trade sector in order to limit the health impact of harmful alcohol consumption. In response to this request the World Health Organization (WHO) organized an open informal consultation in March 2006. At this meeting the issue of data collection on alcohol production and distribution was identified as an appropriate area for separate meetings.
On 19 - 20 February 2008 WHO held its first open informal consultation meeting on alcohol production and distribution data with experts from the alcohol beverages industry, agriculture, trade sectors and representatives of international organizations and public health experts.
The main purpose of the meeting was to:
- discuss existing data sources on alcohol production and trade as well as existing data gaps,
- discuss what is needed to follow up and analyse levels and trends in alcohol consumption,
- explore possible areas of coordination in order to collect more reliable data on alcohol production and distribution.
The meeting identified data gaps and needs for further actions to strengthen global monitoring of alcohol consumption, particularly on areas such as:
- strengthening sustainable data collection, information and dissemination systems in the public domain to follow trends;
- collecting and sharing more detailed data on production, import/export, strength of alcoholic beverages and waste (not consumed);
- improving data on adult per capita consumption (APC), both recorded and unrecorded, particularly in low- and middle income countries representing a large proportion of the world population;
- paying more attention to availability and consumption of unrecorded alcohol, especially containing low quality alcohol or other substances that may cause additional severe health problems;
- improving information on patterns and special population groups (different socio-economic groups, ethnic/indigenous groups) and differences between rural and urban population groups.