Abstract:
Craig W. Moscetti , Pediatric Health Program Manager, Allina Health (Minneapolis, MN).
Allyn L. Taylor , J.D., L.L.M., J.S.D. Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. Adjunct Professor of international relations at the John Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.
Abstract: Today, non-communicable diseases (“NCDs”) are widely recognized as
a global public health crisis and a foreign policy priority. The international community
was slow to identify and respond to the crisis of NCDs in the later part of the twentieth
century. However, in 2011 the United Nations High Level Meeting on NCDs recognized
NCDs as one of the greatest threats to health and development in the twenty-first century,
and a major topic for the post-2015 development agenda. Notably, many experts,
national governments, and global leaders have rallied for an inclusive, “whole-ofgovernment”
and “whole-of-society” approach, situating public-private partnerships
(“PPPs”) with some of the vectors of NCDs, in particular the food and beverage
industries, as the necessary strategy to address the issue.
Although PPPs in global health are not a new phenomenon, PPPs with the food and
beverage industries require a greater level of scrutiny and caution. The same level of
vigilance should be applied when considering partnerships with the sugar-sweetened
beverage (SSB) industry, as in the tobacco and firearms industries, which produce goods
known to be antithetical to public health. We examine how major SSB companies, such
as the Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, have been viewed as legitimate actors and
partners, despite employing coercive tactics similar to the tobacco industry. We question
their assumed full participation and cooperation in global NCD initiatives and call for
greater transparency in global NCD partnership development and policy dialogue,
particularly in the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda
Description:
Washington International Law Journal, Volume 24, Number 3, June 2015