The Vision for Accelerated Sustainable Development, Ghana (VAST Ghana), a prominent Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), is raising a major public health alarm over the "infiltration" of alcohol industry-sponsored programmes into Ghanaian schools and is calling for an immediate government ban on all such activities.

VAST Ghana argues that these initiatives, often masked as corporate social responsibility (CSR) or awareness campaigns, violate existing public health guidelines, exploit young people for profit, and risk normalising alcohol consumption among vulnerable youth.

The NGO has explicitly called on four key state agencies—the Ministry of Health (MoH), the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), the Ghana Education Service (GES), and the Ghana Health Service (GHS)—to intervene decisively and prohibit the alcohol industry's involvement in school-based education and campaigns.

The organisation highlighted two recent examples to illustrate the urgency of the issue in a statement on Sunday, December 14,

Statistics Point to a Youth Drinking Crisis

VAST Ghana stressed that alcohol use constitutes a severe public health crisis in Ghana, contributing to premature deaths, mental health conditions, and social issues like domestic violence.

The organization presented alarming statistics from the Ghana STEPS Survey 2023:

• Adult Consumption: 22.6% of adults aged 18–69 are currently drinking alcohol.
• Adolescent Use: An alarming 12.6% of school-going adolescents aged 11–19 report current alcohol use.
• Minor Population: Ghana’s large minor population (22.1%, or about 6.8 million) is at risk.
• Surging Intake: Per capita alcohol consumption has surged from 1.46 litres in 1960 to 2.7 litres in 2016.

The NGO warned that early initiation to drinking heightens the risks of dependence and long-term health complications.

The Executive Director of VAST Ghana, Labram Musah, emphasised that "Our youth's lives hang in the balance, and the time for decisive action is now."

Frameworks Being Violated

VAST Ghana asserts that the industry's presence in schools directly violates multiple existing national and international policy frameworks:

• FDA Guidelines on Advertisement of Regulated Products.
• The National Alcohol Policy (2017), which specifically calls for the protection of children and young people from alcohol harm.
• The Public Health Act, which mandates government oversight and the protection of minors.
• The WHO Global Alcohol Action Plan 2022-2030, which stresses the need to prevent alcohol industry interference in public health policy.

Immediate Action Demanded

VAST Ghana applauded the FDA's recent landmark court victory upholding the ban on celebrity endorsement of alcohol but insisted that more decisive action is required to address industry interference in educational settings.

The NGO put forward a clear list of recommended actions for the government to undertake forthwith:

• Directive Ban: Issue a directive immediately banning all alcohol industry sponsorship of school events and educational programmes.
• Halt Campaigns: Halt all ongoing alcohol industry-led educational campaigns, including the Smashed Ghana programme.
• Institutional Warning: Call the board and management of Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School and other institutions to order to prevent future sponsorship by alcohol or other harm-related industries.
• Conflict of Interest: Establish clear conflict-of-interest guidelines that explicitly exclude alcohol industry actors from public health policy and youth education.
• Curriculum Reform: Integrate comprehensive, evidence-based alcohol education into the national curriculum, developed and delivered solely by government health and education agencies, without industry involvement.

VAST Ghana concluded that the responsibility rests with the government to educate children on health matters, not entities with a "fundamental conflict of interest".

These actions, they maintain, are critical to ensuring the country meets its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3 for Health and SDG 4 for Quality Education).