FORUT has issued an open letter to several Norwegian government ministers, expressing strong support for Norway’s priorities as a member of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Executive Board from 2024 to 2027. At the same time, FORUT is urging Norway to address critical global health challenges with greater consistency and ambition.
The letter is addressed to Minister of Health Jan Christian Vestre, Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, Development Minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim and Director General Cathrine M. Lofthus.
Read the letter below.
Open letter: FORUT supports Norway’s Priorities as a Member of the WHO Executive Board
FORUT wishes to express its support to Norway’s strategy as a member of the WHO Executive Board from 2024 to 2027.
We strongly believe that Norway’s focus on good governance, achieving universal health coverage, and enhancing preparedness and response to health and humanitarian crises is essential for advancing the WHO’s efforts toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goal for health. FORUT also supports Norway’s plan to actively support the WHO’s humanitarian efforts. These initiatives represent important steps toward empowering the WHO’s mission of promoting health for all.
FORUT would like to acknowledge how Norway’s WHO strategy addresses the growing burden of non-communicable diseases through investing in primary healthcare for universal health coverage. FORUT also acknowledges how Norway supports WHOs efforts to promote prevention measures can help reduce socioeconomic inequalities and noncommunicable diseases through regulation and taxes for health particularly on alcohol and tobacco.
The Report of the Expert Committee on Global Health published in October 2024 stated that Norway can and Norway should take the lead in halving premature deaths by 2050. One of the expert committee’s recommendations is that Norway should work towards reducing health inequality by prioritizing effective measures and strengthening health systems, which includes working with multilateral institutions to increase taxes on tobacco, sugar, and alcohol to reduce premature death and boost domestic resource mobilization.
Norway’s role in global health is significant and cannot be overlooked. However, FORUT would like to highlight that Norway also needs a comprehensive strategy that addresses the commercial determinants of global health, particularly the detrimental impact of unhealthy commodities industries in the Global South.
While Norway has divested from the tobacco industry, the Government Pension Fund (NBIM) invested NOK 150 billion in the alcohol industry in 2023. Meanwhile, the alcohol industry in the Global South actively opposes, delays, and undermines proposals aimed at strengthening policies to reduce alcohol-related harms, as recommended by the World Health Organization.
As a member of the WHO Executive Board, Norway must avoid double standards in promoting alcohol taxes—one of the most cost-effective alcohol control measures—while simultaneously having the Government Pension Fund (NBIM) invest in and profit from the alcohol industry, which contributes to alcohol-related harms.
FORUT wishes Cathrine M. Lofthus all the best in her capacity as board member and hope that she may use this position to influence the agenda of the governing body meetings towards the issues raised above.
Gjøvik, 10 December 2024
Kind regards;
Ida Oleanna Hagen
Secretary General, FORUT
