By Monica Kayombo,Zambia,Lusaka
WORLD Health Organization (WHO) has released two new global reports calling on governments to significantly strengthen taxes on sugary drinks and alcohol beverages.
Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance (NCDA) and Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI) have in their different capacities welcomed the action by WHO describing it as a game changer in global health.
In a statement released yesterday from Geneva, the WHO reports warn that weak tax systems are allowing harmful products to remain cheap while health systems face mounting financial pressure from preventable NCDs and injuries.
WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says: “Health taxes are one of the strongest tools we have for promoting health and preventing disease. By increasing taxes on products like tobacco, sugary drinks, and alcohol, governments can reduce harmful consumption and unlock funds for vital health services.”
Meanwhile, NCD Alliance has welcomed the report by WHO saying well-designed health taxes represent a clear “triple win” to better health outcomes, stronger public finances, and reduced long-term costs.
The NCDA media team states that the pushback that was seen around commitments to targets on health taxes in the negotiations of the 2025 United Nations (UN) Political Declaration reflects the continued influence of health-harming industries like producers of sugary beverages.
The NCDA statement says that arguments around national sovereignty featured prominently, with some Governments framing health taxes as external interference rather than legitimate domestic policy tools.
“These sovereignty arguments can act as dog-whistle language obscuring the reality: health taxes can support national autonomy by increasing capacity to respond to domestic health and fiscal challenges on their own terms. They protect population health while internalizing the social and economic costs of harmful products to the industries who create them; costs that would otherwise be externalized onto individuals, families, and overstretched public systems,’’ the NCD report reads in part.
It concludes that while global commitments matter, national action is where the real political economy battle over health taxes will be won.
It says Leadership also matters as Initiatives such as WHO’s 3 by 35 campaign, launched at last year’s Financing for Development Conference, shows the renewed commitment from WHO, NCDA and other partners to advance policies that are both pro-health and pro-development.
And ZNPHI Director in charge of Emergency and Preparedness and Response Dr Paul Zulu said in an interview that Zambia is in support of the development as it would go a long way in alleviating the pressures that come on the Ministry of Health especially where it concerns NCDs.
Dr Zulu said the money that would be realized from the health taxes would be channeled towards interventions prevention and contribute towards the management of various diseases in various hospitals and communities.
The WHO reports go on to say that the combined global market for sugary drinks and alcoholic beverages generates billions of dollars in profit, fueling widespread consumption and corporate profit. Yet governments capture only a relatively small share of this value through health-motivated taxes, leaving societies to bear the long-term health and economic costs.
The reports show that at least 116 countries tax sugary drinks, many of which are sodas. But many other high-sugar products, such as 100% fruit juices, sweetened milk drinks, and ready-to-drink coffees and teas, escape taxation. While 97% of countries tax energy drinks, this figure has not changed since the last global report in 2023.
A separate WHO report shows that at least 167 countries levy taxes on alcoholic beverages, while 12 ban alcohol entirely. Despite this, alcohol has become more affordable or remained unchanged in price in most countries since 2022, as taxes fail to keep pace with inflation and income growth. Wine remains untaxed in at least 25 countries, mostly in Europe, despite clear health risks.
“More affordable alcohol drives violence, injuries and disease,” highlighted Dr Etienne Krug, Director of WHO’s Department of Health Determinants, Promotion and Prevention. While industry profits, the public often carries the health consequences and society the economic costs.”
WHO found that across regions tax shares on alcohol remain low with global excise share medians of 14% for beer and 22.5 percent for spirits; sugary drink taxes are weak and poorly targeted with the median tax accounting for only about 2 (two) percent of the price of a common sugary soda and often applying only to a subset of beverages, missing large parts of the market; and few countries adjust taxes for inflation, allowing health-harming products to become steadily more affordable.
These trends in tax persist despite a 2022 Gallup Poll finding that the majority of people surveyed supported higher taxes on alcohol and sugary beverages.
WHO is calling on countries to raise and redesign taxes as part of its new three (3) by 35 initiative
a bold global effort to increase the real prices of any or all of the three, tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks by at least 50 percent by 2035 through tax increases, while taking into account each country’s unique context.
According to the WHO website on the 3 by 35 initiative, this effort is expected to reduce consumption of harmful products while mobilizing an additional US$ 1 trillion in public revenue globally over the next decade.
