$4.0M in expenses

Food policy program:vital strategies action fund supports partners work in low and middle-income countries to advocate for legislation, regulations and government programs to achieve healthy food policy goals that address the global harm to health caused by ultra-processed products (upps) and promote healthier food environments. In FY 2024, the food policy program provided subgrants for legislative lobbying activities in brazil, south africa, colombia, barbados, and panama. In brazil, the food policy program contracted with ACT, health promotion (ACT) to conduct mass media communication campaigns in support of a tax reform on ultra-processed products (upps) and sugary and sweetened beverages. After two years of discussion in congress, brazil's tax reform regulation bill was approved on dec. 17, 2024. The selective tax includes soft drinks as well as tobacco and alcoholic beverages. The new legislation also introduced a basic food basket of healthy and sustainable products that are exempt from the new taxes. In brazil, the food policy program also contracted with the brazilian institute for consumer rights (idec) to prepare a new campaign phase for regional healthy school food legislation. The campaign is scheduled for 2025.in south africa, the food policy program contracted with community media trust to conduct mass media communication campaigns with the goal of increasing taxes on sugary beverages, including fruit juices. In 2024, CMT published the episode "is the sugar industry lying to us?" of its "chew on this" podcast which was used strategically to set the agenda for the tax ahead of the mid-term budget policy statement. From october-november 2024, CMT also implemented the "are you drinking yourself sick?" campaign which reached nearly 10 million people. In colombia, the food policy program contracted with corporacin colombiana de padres y madres (red papaz) to conduct mass media communication campaigns in support of legislative actions to regulate the marketing of upps, particularly to children. In 2024 red papaz implemented the "don't eat more lies anymore" campaign which reached 32.8 million people combined through its two phases and gathered 11,700 signatures. At the end of 2024 red papaz also launched "don't eat more lies: part 2" which garnered over 49,500 signatures in 3 months and reached over 4.8 million people. In colombia, the coalition, led by red papaz, also submitted the marketing restriction bill to congress on nov. 6, 2024, as well as the healthy school environments bill on nov. 12, 2024, led by fian colombia. All coalition organizations actively supported both filings. Furthermore, on nov. 6, 2024, a below-the-line activity was conducted in congress to support the #leyniezcomidachatarra bill.in barbados, the food policy program worked with the heart and stroke foundation of barbados to support the development of a mass media communication campaign strategy to advocate for front-of-package-warning label legislation. In panama, the food policy program contracted with fundacin movimiento de alimentacin saludable to implement communication strategy to advocate for the national front-of-package labeling legislation.

$365K in expenses

Reset alcohol:reset alcohol is a public health initiative which brings together national governments, civil society and global leaders to advance policies from the world health organization's safer package to reduce the health, social and economic harms of alcohol. Working primarily in brazil, colombia, kenya, mexico, philippines, and sri lanka, reset alcohol activities include providing financial and technical support to governments, civil society organizations and technical policy institutions. The initiative is led by vital strategies in collaboration with johns hopkins university, global alcohol policy alliance (gapa), movendi international, the NCD alliance, and world health organization (who). The 3 biggest accomplishments for the reset alcohol program in 2024. 1. Brazil's national congress approved a new tax reform that includes a selective tax on alcoholic beverages.2. Mass media campaigns were launched in mexico to raise awareness of alcohol's harms and build support for policy action, reaching over 33 million people.3. Public opinion polling was conducted in five countries to gauge concerns around alcohol-related violence and health harms. These insights revealed importantly that in all countries the majority of the people are in favor of alcohol taxes. These and other alcohol polls are being used in comms and advocacy campaigns to raise taxes.

$125K in expenses

Overdose prevention program: in 2024 the vital strategies action fund received a grant directed towards defensive lobbying in the state of kentucky. Specifically, the thrust of this effort was to counteract some of the harmful impacts of recently passed state legislation that aggressively targets people who are homeless and meets them with severe criminal measures rather than supportive public health environments. People who are homeless are among the highest risk groups for fatal overdose the new measures therefore would bring further harm to an already at-risk group, counter to extensive evidence that incarceration and punitive measures drastically increase the risk of overdose.this grant allowed for a subgrant to rebuild the dream, who organized a coalition within the state to begin working against the most harmful aspects of the new legislation. This coalition included groups from the public health field, as well as civil rights groups, and other advocates for supportive responses to marginalized populations for example aclu kentucky, kentucky center for economic policy, kentucky free, department of public advocacy, and homeless and houseless coalition of kentucky.this coalition first worked to amend the legislation to lessen the severity of some criminal penalties. They were also successful in advocating for the governor to veto the legislation an important positional statement despite the eventual overturn of that veto. Finally, after passage of the bill, this work was extended to negotiations with the state's administrative office of courts (aoc) and an agreement with that agency to provide key data to the advocacy coalition which will allow for an understanding of the 'before and after' picture in the wake of newly created or increased penalties, to characterize the laws' impacts on people and the justice system. 1. Forming a multi-sectoral coalition that includes public health groups, civil rights attorneys and advocates, economic policy institutions, legal protection entities, and other key policy experts.2. Securing a veto from the governor of kentucky against extremely harmful legislation that contradicts public health evidence.3. Securing agreement with the state's courts systems for receipt of key sentencing and supervision data to create a capacity to monitor the health and human impact of the new policies.