WHO Launches New Initiative to Raise Pro-Health Taxes and Save Millions of Lives

Global Health Financing Through Pro-Health Taxation

The World Health Organisation has unveiled an ambitious initiative supporting countries to raise real prices on tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks by at least 50% through pro-health taxes by 2035.

This initiative comes at a time when health systems around the world face mounting challenges from rising NCDs, shrinking development aid, and increasing public debt, according to WHO’s official news release.

Alcohol Policy to Promote Health and Boost Revenue

Alcohol remains a major risk factor for NCDs, including heart disease, cancer, and liver disease, as well as mental health conditions.

WHO emphasises that raising alcohol taxes is one of the most effective tools to reduce population-level alcohol use, harms, and costs.

For instance, the WHO Global Alcohol Status Report highlights that despite recent mortality declines, alcohol use still causes over 2.6 million deaths annually.

A growing number of countries have already introduced successful pro-health tax measures. From 2012 to 2022, nearly 140 countries raised tobacco taxes, with average real price increases exceeding 50%, WHO reported. This track record shows that substantial alcohol tax increases are not only possible but impactful. The 3×35 Initiative seeks to expand this approach in more countries, supporting them in adopting evidence-based alcohol taxation to repeat the successes of countries that have already raised alcohol excise taxes. 

Global Examples Show Promise of Alcohol Taxation

The economic and health benefits of raising alcohol taxes are already evident in countries like Sri Lanka and Lithuania.

Movendi International, a global alcohol policy advocacy organisation, reported that Sri Lanka surpassed its tax revenue targets in Q1 2024 after implementing two 20% alcohol tax increases in 2023. 

Further evaluations in Botswana, South Africa, Russia, Thailand, and the Philippines show similar gains. Movendi’s April 2024 policy brief, featuring eight case studies, details how higher alcohol taxes improve public health outcomes, bolster public finances, and reduce health inequalities.

Movendi Welcomes Ambitious New WHO-Led Initiative to Raise Pro-Health Taxes and Save Millions of Lives

Countering Alcohol Industry Pushback

Despite clear evidence of the impact and benefits for people’s health and nations’ development, the alcohol industry continues to resist pro-health taxes. According to drinks intel, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (Discus) called WHO’s recommendations “misguided” and wrongly claimed taxes would not deter people with alcohol use disorder. However, scientific studies cited by the WHO show the opposite. 

Moreover, Discus’s senior VP of science & research, Amanda Berger falsely claimed that alcohol taxes fuel the informal alcohol market. However, research shows that higher taxes do not increase illicit sales, suggesting that the industry’s claims are aimed at protecting profit, not people’s health.

South Africa: Alcohol Tax Increases Work, As Science Exposes Industry Lies

Strategic Partnerships for Global Impact

The 3 by 35 Initiative is supported by a coalition of global actors including the World Bank, OECD, Bloomberg Philanthropies, NCD Alliance, SEATCA, and Movendi International. These partners bring technical support, policy advice, and advocacy experience to help governments design and implement pro-health tax reforms.

This initiative aligns with growing interest among countries to transition toward more self-reliant, domestically funded health systems. It also builds momentum toward the Fourth UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs in September 2025, where global leaders are expected to endorse taxation as a tool for sustainable development.

Three Key Focus Areas of the 3 by 35 Initiative

The “3 by 35” Initiative introduces key action areas to help countries, pairing proven health policies with best practices on implementation. These include direct support for country-led reforms with the following goals in mind: 

• Cutting consumption of health harming products by reducing affordability; 
  Increase or introduce excise taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks to raise prices and reduce affordability to lower population-level consumption, cutting future health costs and preventable deaths.
• Raising revenue to fund health and development; 
  Mobilise domestic public resources to fund essential health and development programs, including universal health coverage.
• Building broad political support across ministries, civil society, and academia; 
  Strengthen multisectoral alliances by engaging Ministries of Finance and Health, parliamentarians, civil society, and researchers to design and implement effective policies.

WHO is calling on countries, civil society, and development partners to support the “3 by 35” Initiative and commit to smarter, fairer taxation that protects health and accelerates progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.

Movendi International welcomes the 3×35 Initiative and we call on countries to follow best practice examples in raising alcohol taxes to protect people from preventable harm, promote health, support national development, and strengthen economies,” said Kristina Sperkova, International President, and Pubudu Sumanasekara, International Vice President of Movendi International.

We see that a growing number of countries is interested in raising alcohol excise taxes and is asking for support. We also see that people and communities support raising alcohol taxes because they want change concerning the high levels of alcohol harm. And we see that there are excellent country examples from around the world that show the impressive benefits of raising alcohol taxes.

Kristina Sperkova and Pubudu Sumanasekara, Movendi International

An Urgent Opportunity for Alcohol Policy Progress

WHO’s 3 by 35 Initiative marks a turning point in global alcohol policy. With ample evidence of its effectiveness and growing public support, raising alcohol taxes is a proven strategy for preventing harm and promoting health equity.

Movendi International’s Vice President Pubudu Sumanasekara noted that with proper investment and communication, these measures can accelerate progress on 15 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Movendi International has developed three resources to support countries and build capacity for civil society advocacy towards raising alcohol taxes. With each resource comes a picture and together the three pictures illustrate the potential of raising alcohol taxes.

• Countries achieve remarkable benefits through alcohol taxation: Multiple countries with different conditions and contexts reap the benefits of increasing alcohol excises taxes. Eight country case stories show that raising alcohol taxes can be done, that it is being done, and that it is benefitial for people and societies.
• People support raising alcohol taxes: Data from surveys by Gallup and by Vital Strategies for the RESET Alcohol Initiative shows that a majority of people across nine different countries from different parts of the world supports raising alcohol taxes. The support increases when people understand that the additional revenue is being used to fund critical services and government programs, such as mental healthcare services.
• Raising alcohol excise taxes helps achieve the SDGs: Analysis by Movendi International shows that alcohol harm impedes 15 of 17 SDGs, in all three dimensions of sustainable development. A complementary analysis illustrates evidence that raising alcohol taxes boost progress towards multiple SDGs. It means that raising alcohol taxes brings multiple benefits to people, communities, economies, and societies.

Why Alcohol Taxation Matters: The Quadruple Win of Alcohol Taxation

Alcohol taxation is more than a fiscal policy – it’s a powerful, proven tool for transforming societies. While often framed as a win-win or triple win, the full potential of raising alcohol excise taxation is best captured in its quadruple win:

• Prevent and reduce harm: Raising alcohol taxes is the single most cost-effective alcohol policy solution to directly lower population-level alcohol consumption and the wide range of harms and costs it causes – violence, injuries, cancer, liver and heart disease, mental ill-health, and premature deaths. It prevents suffering, saves lives, and protects families and communities.
• Generate revenue: Alcohol taxation is a cost-effective measure for governments to increase domestic revenues. The potential of alcohol taxation to bring in reliable and substantial funds often exceeds those from tobacco or sugar-sweetened beverage taxes.
• Finance health and development priorities: The revenues raised can be (soft) earmarked or strategically allocated to finance health systems, prevention and health promotion programs, education, or other vital public services, such as better enforcement and scientific evaluation of alcohol policies. This way alcohol taxation helps fund public goods and human development.
• Advance health equity and social justice: Alcohol harm disproportionately affects people in vulnerable and marginalized communities with low socio-economic status. Preventing and reducing alcohol harm benefits them the most and redirecting revenues toward public goods contributes to reducing health inequalities. Alcohol taxation is a rights-based, pro-equity policy that promotes social justice and strengthens the social contract by prioritizing people’s welfare over alcohol industry profit interests.

Communities have long advocated for the use of alcohol taxation as a high-impact, cost-effective tool for domestic resource mobilisation. The potential of alcohol taxation to do good is substantial:

In 2024, the Task Force on Fiscal Policy for Health released a landmark report, “Health Taxes: A Compelling Policy for the Crises of Today.” It illustrates the significant potential of raising pro-health taxes for saving lives and it shows that raising alcohol taxes has the biggest potential for revenue generation. to invest in programs and services for people.

The Copenhagen Consensus Center released a landmark study in 2023. It identified 30 cost-effective interventions to achieve the SDGs in the fastest way possible. Analysis showed that the alcohol policy best buys in general and alcohol taxation on its own ranked second and third most effective out of all 30 interventions.

With these resources and support from Movendi International, the RESET Alcohol Initiative, and the new 3×35 WHO-led Initiative, countries worldwide now have both the roadmap and the momentum to take evidence-based, ambitious action. Implementing pro-health taxes is a matter of saving lives and of building stronger, more equitable societies where everyone can thrive.