Silence of the leaders: alcohol policy-making in Malawi

Mambulu, Faith Nankasa; Mkandawire, Paul; Dixon, Jenna; Mason, Sarah A.; Rishworth, Andrea; Luginaah, Isaac

doi:10.1080/19376812.2014.1003306

Cited by 3 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Commonly identified consequences include cigarette smuggling 33,42,45,48,54,56,57,61,67,70,73,81,[90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97] ; a shift towards informal home-brewed alcohol 48 ; and food and beverage unaffordability, nutrient deficiency and dehydration. 64,91 Findings from Abedian et al and Coriakula et al 53,98 suggest strategic links to the media, or indeed media ownership itself, to perpetuate this framing in the public sphere. Corporate social responsibility initiatives are also a common industry tactic to seek favourable public positioning.…”

Section: The Influence Of Industrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Common techniques include fostering and embracing ties to the political and economic elite 46,75,77,81,84,86,87,99,100 ; funding or supporting political parties 86 ; and establishing lobbying and front groups prone to deception, disputing evidence and directly interfering in policy process. 15,42,46,47,49,51,53,55,56,59,60,63,65,66,68,71,73,79,85,86,94,[96][97][98][99][101][102][103][104] Industry interference often results in stalled or diluted fiscal mechanisms; undermining the strength and sustainability of measures. 45,49,51,53,61,66,68,73,79,81,…”

Section: The Influence Of Industrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Direct support by multilateral agencies, NGOs and philanthropic trusts was identified to expedite the design and implementation of fiscal measures. While the WHO was held in high regard for their technical advice, 45,55,60,63,98 sources also highlighted multisectoral consensus building to derive from engagement with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), IMF, the World Bank, and other national and international NGOs and philanthropic trusts. 53,61,62,68,71,73,104,113 Locally-based offices of multilateral agencies, seed organisations and links between multi-lateral actors and local organisations sometimes blurred the boundaries between multilateral and civil society action.…”

Section: Multilateral Actorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While evidencebased frames, which drew on diverse projections of impacts, were most likely to mobilise ideologically and politically dissimilar audiences; giving political and social traction to measures. 48,53,63,71,73,85,98,104 This dynamic is best demonstrated by the Philippines' and Thailand's additional revenue investments in health, which led to policy backing by healthinterested parties rather than those solely interested in economic benefits. 48,52,63,124 Evidence The role of local, regional, global and industry-endorsed evidence was discussed in 45 papers (60%).…”

Section: Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…24,50,58,59,62 Population growth and increasing wealth have also made LMICs a more favourable market for the sellers of harmful commodities. 48,[70][71][72]82,83,90,98,99,103,104,124 Development-associated capacity constraints also challenge the design and implementation of fiscal measures. These include financial constraints, 73,76,78,79,82,87,92,104,110,124 insufficient human resource and technical capacities to effectively negotiate trade deals, 45,50,59,90,103 and sufficient resources to monitor and adjust fiscal measures where necessary.…”

Section: Situational Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Health Taxes on Tobacco, Alcohol, Food and Drinks in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review of Policy Content, Actors, Process and Context

Elliott

Dalglish

Topp

2020

Int J Health Policy Manag

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Taxation of tobacco, food, alcohol and other beverages has gained renewed attention in responding to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). While largely built on evidence from high-income countries (HICs), the projected economic and health benefits of these measures have increased calls for their use in price-sensitive low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, uptake has been sporadic and there remains little research on why and how LMICs utilise fiscal measures in response to NCDs. Methods: This scoping review analyses factors influencing the design and implementation of health-related fiscal measures in LMICs. Utilising Arksey and O’Malley’s scoping review methodology and Walt and Gilson’s policy triangle, we considered the contextual, procedural, content and stakeholder-related factors that influenced measures. Results: We identified 75 papers focussing on health-related fiscal measures, with 47 (63%) focused on tobacco, 5 on alcohol, 6 on soft drink and 4 studies on food-related fiscal regulation. Thirteen papers analysed multiple measures and most papers (n = 66, 88%) were less than a decade old. Key factors enabling the design and implementation of measures included localised health and economic evidence, policy championing, inter-ministerial support, and global or regional momentum. Impeding factors encompassed negative framing and retaliation by industry, vested interests and governmental policy disjuncture. Aligning with theoretic insights from the policy triangle, findings consistently demonstrated that the interplay between factors – rather than the presence or absence of particular factors – has the most profound impact on policy implementation. Conclusion: Given the growing urgency to address NCDs in LMICs, this review highlights the need for recognition and rigorous exploration of political economy factors influencing the design and implementation of fiscal measures. Broader LMIC-specific empirical research is needed to overcome an implication noted in much of the literature: that mechanisms used to enact tobacco taxation are universally applicable to measures targeting foods, alcohol and other beverages.

show abstract

Section: The Influence Of Industrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Influence Of Industrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Multilateral Actorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Situational Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Health Taxes on Tobacco, Alcohol, Food and Drinks in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review of Policy Content, Actors, Process and Context

Elliott

Dalglish

Topp

2020

Int J Health Policy Manag

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

The Advocacy Coalition Framework: Lessons from Applications in African Countries

Osei‐Kojo

Ingold

Weible

2022

Polit Vierteljahresschr

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) emerged in Western democratic contexts, scholars increasingly apply it in other parts of the world to analyze diverse policy topics. These cross-country comparisons have provided a means for advancing comparative research, drawing lessons about policy processes, and offering opportunities to refine the framework. In this paper, we provide an overview of the ACF and its use as an analytical tool for comparative research. Through a systematic literature review, we identified 27 applications in 15 African countries, including democracies, authoritarian governments, and hybrid systems. Based on these applications published in peer-reviewed journals, we explore this illustrated collection of case studies to see how the ACF has been applied outside of Western democracies and to identify strengths and weaknesses of the ACF as a portable framework. These applications confirm the basic postulations of the ACF, but we also identify a few nuances and expectations. Based on these insights, we finally lay out a research agenda and a new generation of questions for applying the ACF in the African context as well as globally.

show abstract

Political ecology of domestic water access and use in urban Malawi

Kusi-Appiah

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rapid urbanization has worsened the water shortage problem in sub-Saharan African cities, with most people using water from sources other than official water supply systems. However, dominant accounts of why urban households face water shortages remain confined to the formal water sector, with explanations privileging market forces and institutional dynamics as significant barriers, with little or no attention to the role of non-market relations in mediating access to water among households on the periphery of municipal supply grids. Using Mzuzu (Malawi) as a case study, I applied theoretical perspectives grounded in political ecology and feminist political ecology to examine sociocultural and political strategies the poor mobilize to access water for daily use. The findings of qualitative research (n=52) indicate that the urban poor seek to address the problem of water shortage processually, assembling a set of contingent socio-spatial and temporal strategies that allow them to bridge between different spells and sources of water according to household utility purposes. Specifically, the study found that ganyu, an informal form of labour rooted in Malawi's history, granted the urban poor secondary access to the same water supply system from which they are officially excluded. At the same time, material control over water allowed ganyu providers to leverage significant control over the labour of ganyu seekers and women's bodies, suggesting that water is a medium through which historical materializations of colonial labour relations find new expression. The study also reveals that the poor negotiate competing water needs by relying on symbolic meanings and cosmological and cultural beliefs to make sense of water and justify the domestic use of water from otherwise potentially contaminated sources. These findings show the intimate connection and multiscalar integration between the water supply system's formal, impersonal, market realm and the informal, interpersonal non-market social relations of water. Although the design of this ii study was partially affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the findings can potentially make significant theoretical and empirical contributions to our understanding of the sociocultural and political forces that shape access to water among the urban poor. The thesis concludes with recommendations and directions for future research. iii Preface Three manuscripts are represented in this dissertation. All three manuscripts are the work of Andy Kusi-Appiah. I was responsible for developing the research questions/objectives, study design, data collection tools, interviewing, analysing the data collected and writing the manuscripts. The co-author of all three manuscripts is my dissertation advisor, Dr. Paul Mkandawire. The three manuscripts are: Chapter 4: Political Ecology of Household Water Security among the Urban poor in Malawi. This manuscript has been submitted to the Journal of Wellbeing, Space and Society and has been published. Dr. Paul Mkandawire provided thorough input, including rev...

show abstract

Silence of the leaders: alcohol policy-making in Malawi

Cited by 3 publications

References 19 publications

Health Taxes on Tobacco, Alcohol, Food and Drinks in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review of Policy Content, Actors, Process and Context

Health Taxes on Tobacco, Alcohol, Food and Drinks in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review of Policy Content, Actors, Process and Context

The Advocacy Coalition Framework: Lessons from Applications in African Countries

Political ecology of domestic water access and use in urban Malawi

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About