Between September and November 2024, officials and other nominees including nongovernmental organization representatives from six countries across all six WHO regions convened to share experiences and develop innovative solutions to meet the challenge of industry interference and address the commercial determinants of health. The missions, led by WHO's Division of Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact, together with WHO's Department of Social Determinants of Health, explored lessons learned on how to overcome industry interference across critical public health issues including tobacco, alcohol, health-harming foods, sugary beverages and road safety.
Participating countries discussed a number of shared challenges, including:
- aligning economic objectives with public health goals;
- putting public health before commercial interests in complex situations, including where there are challenges with enforcement;
- addressing gaps in conflict-of-interest policies, rules and approaches; and
- addressing industry tactics to undermine health, including non-compliance, obfuscation and coalition-building.
A common challenge presented during the missions was the structural power imbalances that make smaller countries vulnerable to industry interference by large transnational commercial actors. This has been previously identified as an area for increased WHO support to countries and is a topic being addressed through global and regional initiatives to support Small Island Developing States (SIDS) including in a forthcoming WHO technical paper on the Economic and commercial determinants of health in Small Island Developing States.
Countries also highlighted opportunities for progress, including:
- strengthening multi-sectoral collaboration and whole-of-government approaches to address the commercial determinants of health;
- building capacity to counter misinformation and implement conflict-of-interest safeguards; and
- working with WHO to support evidence-based advocacy.
WHO will strive to provide targeted technical assistance, support capacity-building, and foster a global community of practice on the commercial determinants of health to these and other countries to protect health, promote well being and save lives.
