The SAFER initiative

A world free from alcohol related harm

Every 10 seconds a person dies from alcohol-related causes. WHO, in collaboration with international partners, launched the SAFER initiative in 2018. "SAFER" is an acronym for the 5 most cost effective interventions to reduce alcohol related harm.

About SAFER

The SAFER interventions

Strengthen restrictions on alcohol availability

Enacting and enforcing restrictions on commercial or public availability of alcohol through laws, policies, and programmes are important ways to reduce harmful use of alcohol. Such strategies provide essential measures to prevent easy access to alcohol by young people and other vulnerable and high-risk groups.

Advance and enforce drink driving counter measures

Road users who are impaired by alcohol have a significantly higher risk of being involved in a crash. Enacting and enforcing strong drink-driving laws and low blood alcohol concentration limits via sobriety checkpoints and random breath testing will help to turn the tide.

Facilitate access to screening, brief interventions and treatment

Health professionals have an important role in helping people to reduce or stop their drinking to reduce health risks, and health services have to provide effective interventions for those in need of help and their families.

Enforce bans or comprehensive restrictions on alcohol advertising, sponsorship, and promotion

Bans and comprehensive restrictions on alcohol advertising, sponsorship and promotion are impactful and cost-effective measures. Enacting and enforcing bans or comprehensive restrictions on exposure to them in the digital world will bring public health benefits and help protect children, adolescents and abstainers from the pressure to start consuming alcohol.

Raise prices on alcohol through excise taxes and pricing policies

Alcohol taxation and pricing policies are among the most effective and cost-effective alcohol control measures. An increase in excise taxes on alcoholic beverages is a proven measure to reduce harmful use of alcohol and it provides governments revenue to offset the economic costs of harmful use of alcohol.

SAFER is more than a technical package of evidence-based interventions. It provides a foundation for long-term success by enabling countries to build or strengthen legitimate institutions, sustain political and public support over time, and define achievable policy aims that can be translated into implementation and enforcement. This is critical because durable progress in alcohol policy depends not only on the choice of measures, but also on the strength of the institutions that carry them, the legitimacy of the process behind them, and the ability to maintain direction over time despite competing pressures and changing political circumstances. SAFER therefore serves not only as an intervention framework, but as a foundation for sustained and credible policy development, implementation, and enforcement.

Latest from SAFER

Reducing alcohol-related harm: SAFER implementation handbook provides practical guidance for countries, communities and institutions seeking to implement...

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Implementing what works in alcohol policy: progress report on the SAFER initiative

Alcohol-related harm causes millions of deaths each year and remains a major, preventable obstacle to health, equity and sustainable development.

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SAFER stories

6 May 2025

Strengthening alcohol control and road safety policies

Sri Lanka has launched the WHO SAFER technical package and the country's first comprehensive alcohol investment case. Partners at the launch shared a clear message: alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive and dependence-producing substance, the harm it causes is preventable, and reducing that harm requires coordinated action across society.

As part of the ambitious SAFER initiative to tackle alcohol-related problems, in collaboration with WHO, 17 addiction treatment specialists held a five-day workshop to draft a manual to guide the screening and management of people affected by hazardous drinking and alcohol use disorders.

Nepal formally launched its partnership with WHO and other partners to implement SAFER, an alcohol control initiative, for the prevention and reduction of alcohol-related harm and deaths. With this, the country will now scale up action to implement high-impact and cost-effective strategies and interventions in accordance with Nepal's alcohol control priorities.

In collaboration with WHO and the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), the Ministry of Health is implementing the SAFER initiative through facilitating access to screening, conducting brief interventions, providing treatment to patients and other interventions.

Multimedia

10 May 2022

Regulating cross-border marketing of alcohol

14 October 2020