WHO Collaborating Centre

The SHORE and Whariki Research Centre is a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre in alcohol and drug issues. Professor Sally Casswell, SHORE's Director, is also a member of the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Alcohol and Drug Dependence.The terms of reference for the Collaborating Centre are:

1. To assist WHO in alcohol & other drug policy development. 
2. To collaborate in research in the Region including the compilation of data on alcohol-related casualties & alcohol consumption to support the strengthening of global epidemiological surveillance. 
3. To increase awareness of alcohol & other drug policy & prevention strategies in the Region. 
4. To participate & provide opportunities for development of capacity-buidling in the Region. 

This work is led by Sally Casswell with input from Dr Martin Wall, Dr Linda Hill, Sally Liggins and others at SHORE. It has focus on the Western Pacific region, which is one of the six WHO regions and home to 1.6 billion people, almost a third of the world’s population.  The region covers a vast area, from New Zealand in the south, China in the north-west and French Polynesia in the east. 

The region is very diverse – the 37 member states include high income countries like New Zealand and Australia, Japan, Singapore and the Republic of Korea and some of the least economically developed, along with fast growing economies such as China and Vietnam.

The research focus is on drugs and alcohol, and especially alcohol policy. During 2006 SHORE had input into the inaugural meeting of the Asia Pacific Policy Alliance held in Bangkok and Professor Casswell attended the Pacific Drug Research Network Workshop in Nadi, Fiji as an invited presenter. 

SHORE was closely involved in the development of a regional alcohol strategy for the Western Pacific.  Professor Casswell chaired the technical meeting held in 2006 to develop the Regional Strategy and SHORE was contracted by WHO Regional Office, to prepare three background papers on alcohol taxation, alcohol marketing and trade treaties, looking at effectiveness of strategies to reduce harm from excessive alcohol consumption.

• Alcohol Marketing in the Western Pacific
• Alcohol Taxation in the Western Pacific Region
• Economic Treaties and Alcohol in the Western Pacific Region

These three background papers were prepared in 2007 prior to the meeting of the Regional Committee which was held in Auckland in September. (The reports have been translated into French and are available to download from the Secretariat of the South Pacific website)

“The availability of the evidence informed the discussion on the draft regional strategy – and it was a great outcome that the strategy was unanimously accepted by the 37 member states,” says SHORE Director, Sally Casswell.

WPRO Regional Strategy to Reduce Alcohol-Related Harm

Alcohol companies are global corporations says Casswell and some of the largest potential growth markets are in this region, including China, so it makes the development of a regional strategy which can then feed into a global strategy very important.

Following on from the background papers, SHORE researchers Sally Casswell, Linda Hill and Sally Liggins drafted a Resource Book, for the implementation. The draft Resource Book was considered at a Pacific Meeting held in Auckland in May 2008, funded by NZAID and co-organised by SHORE and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC).  The meeting aimed to strengthen collaboration between government and NGOs and also between Pacific nations. As well as strengthening networks and exchanging information and experiences about alcohol related harm and lack of policies, participants received training in a programme logic approach to planning, which they found very useful.

The Western Pacific Regional Strategy to Reduce Alcohol-Related Harm: How to Develop an Action Plan to Implement the Strategy was subsequently published by WHO in 2009. It gives examples of good practice, which will allow various countries within the Western Pacific to work towards implementing effective alcohol policies appropriate to their country construct.

  
Representatives at the May 2008 ‘Meeting on Addressing
Alcohol-Related Harm in Pacific countries

Recent Collaborating Centre work has included provision of technical input and advice on effective alcohol policy in the Asia and Pacific region, as well as organising and facilitating a number of WHO sponsored meetings. Most recently WHO funded a project on Sustainable Data Collection and National Alcohol Policy Development involving several countries in South East Asia.