ICAP organizes and hosts many international meetings each year. This section provides reports from those meetings.
Vietnam Alcohol Policy Workshop
Hanoi, Vietnam
18-19 March 2009
As input to its preparation for drafting a national alcohol policy, the Health Strategy and Policy Institute (HSPI) of the Ministry of Health of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam invited ICAP to co-organize a national workshop entitled, “Sharing Experiences for the Development of the National Policy on Alcohol-related Harm Prevention and Control.” The workshop report, available in English and Vietnamese, records the main points of discussion and highlights areas of common interest among stakeholders.
ICAP Africa Region Conference 2008 Report
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
9-10 September 2008
The International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) organized its second Africa Region Conference on 9–10 September 2008 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Seventy participants from 15 countries attended the conference, representing ministries and government agencies, public health organizations, NGOs, and the beverage alcohol industry. Participants discussed regional and international initiatives aimed at reducing harmful drinking, addressed knowledge gaps, and explored integrated approaches that can support effective, efficient, and sustainable implementation of alcohol policies and targeted interventions in Africa. This conference built on the successful ICAP regional workshop on self-regulation held in Cape Town in October 2006.
ICAP Asia-Pacific Alcohol Forum
Singapore
26-27 June 2008
More than 100 individuals from 15 countries participated in the ICAP Asia-Pacific Alcohol Forum, representing government ministries, public health organizations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the beverage alcohol industry, and trade associations. The Forum, which ICAP plans to hold on a regular basis in the Asia-Pacific region, provided an opportunity for participants to discuss regional and international initiatives aimed at tackling alcohol-related harm, to address knowledge gaps, and to explore integrated approaches that can support effective, efficient, and sustainable implementation of alcohol policies and targeted interventions.
The Forum Report provides an overview of the participants’ discussions. It highlights the ways in which ICAP intends to serve as a resource and a place for balanced dialogue among stakeholders in the region. The Forum is a catalyst for sharing expertise within the region while recognizing that strategies and interventions to address alcohol misuse must take into account the different cultures and drinking patterns in the Asia-Pacific region and in each individual country.
Sharing Best Practice in Self-Regulation: International & Regional Workshops
London, UK (2004); Tokyo, Japan (2006); Cape Town, South Africa (2006); Santiago, Chile (2007)
Following a meeting organized in 2003 by the World Health Organization (WHO) with representatives of the beverage alcohol industry, ICAP has convened a series of workshops to exchange best practice on self-regulation of advertising and marketing of beverage alcohol. The London workshop, held in October 2004, afforded an opportunity to review industry best practice internationally with a wide range of stakeholders from the beverage alcohol industry, self-regulatory bodies, advertisers, governmental bodies and public health experts, including representatives from the European Commission and the WHO.
As self-regulation of beverage alcohol takes different forms in different markets around the world—appropriately reflecting the many ways in which alcohol is regulated, sold, and consumed in diverse cultures—ICAP has organized a series of regional workshops to improve understanding of self-regulation and answer the need for continual improvement in implementing self-regulatory systems internationally, regionally, and locally. Regional workshops were held in 2006 in the Asia-Pacific region (Tokyo, Japan) and the Africa region (Cape Town, South Africa). A Latin America regional workshop was held in November 2007 (Santiago, Chile).
The key issues arising from the workshops are summarized in the meeting reports. The reports also include overviews of self-regulation and illustrations of activities undertaken by the alcohol industry both internationally and regionally.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
17-18 May 2006
Leading international experts working on various aspects of health related to alcohol were assembled for a symposium on the health risk and benefits of moderate alcohol consumption. The symposium was organized jointly by ICAP and the Institute on Lifestyle and Health of the Boston University School of Medicine. Its goal was to examine the available scientific data on the health effects of moderate drinking and its implications for further research, providing information to the public and alcohol policy.
Alcohol Policy 2015: Identifying Future Trends
Public Health Workshop
London, UK
9 June 2005
As part of its ongoing consultations with the public health community, ICAP convened a workshop in June 2005, bringing together key international experts from a range of countries and backgrounds. The workshop was held at the Royal Society of Medicine in London and included participants from Europe, Africa, North and South America, and the Asia-Pacific region, and from both developed and developing countries.
The participants were asked to share their insights into the current state of alcohol policies in their respective countries and regions and to help identify new directions likely to emerge in the future. What emerged was a high degree of concurrence regarding the current status of alcohol issues. Identified topics can be divided into three broad areas: drinking patterns and their relationship to harm, the need for targeted interventions, and the merits of partnership in finding solutions.
ICAP Symposium on Young People's Drinking
Kobe, Japan
24 October 2004
ICAP sponsored a symposium entitled "Young People’s Drinking – An International Perspective." The symposium was part of the XVIII World Congress of the World Association for Social Psychiatry (WASP), held in Kobe, Japan, from 24 to 27 October 2004. By bringing together experts and practitioners from various regions and disciplines, the symposium aimed to contribute to the cross-cultural discussion of the nature and extent of young people’s drinking.
Click here for the symposium agenda with presentation, papers, and abstracts.
Dublin, Ireland
16-18 October 2002
Participants were asked to identify specific "rights" and "responsibilities" for all parties in the alcohol debate. The position of the consumer, subject to diverse and often conflicting influences, was examined. The conference explored the general conclusions about the roles of key stakeholders in the sometimes contentious alcohol debate, identifying ethical principles that should guide them. Participants had the opportunity to propose concrete steps to translate these principles into action. ICAP's 2005 book, Corporate Social Responsibility and Alcohol: The Need and Potential for Partnership (co-edited by Marcus Grant and Joyce O'Connor), was based on presentations of this conference.
New York City, USA
28 June-1 July 1998
Participants from more than 30 countries around the world gathered at this first-ever conference on alcohol and pleasure from a health perspective. The panelists and participants explored the role of pleasure in alcohol consumption and its consequences for the health of individuals, as well as for society as a whole. Based on the discussions generated at the conference, a book titled Alcohol and Pleasure: A Health Perspective, co-edited by Stanton Peele and , was published in 1999.Marcus Grant