2025, Forut, University of Stirling
Executive Summary
Sub-Saharan Africa has been identified as a key market for growth for the alcohol industry for many reasons, including high proportions of abstainers and heavy episodic drinkers (among drinkers) and weak alcohol control policies (1-4). Global retail sales for alcohol in 2017 were estimated to be worth over $1.5 trillion (15.8 trillion NOK), with sales and profits concentrated among a small number of transnational companies (5). In line with other health-harming industries, the size and scale of these companies support marketing, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and other activity dedicated to preventing policies that conflict with commercial interests (6-8).
The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (The Fund) is the world’s largest stateowned global investment fund. Its objective is to secure funding for future generations of Norwegians (9). FORUT has advocated for The Fund to stop investing in alcohol companies, but with little success; in 2024, The Fund invested approximately 138 billion NOK in alcohol companies worldwide (up from 133 billion NOK in 2021). FORUT commissioned the University of Stirling to conduct research on the activity of alcohol companies in which The Fund invests in sub-Saharan Africa, placing industry activity in its global context and revealing the connections between the alcohol industry and other health-harming industries, such as tobacco.
Via a crowdsourcing initiative, we found:
• 61 examples of alcohol industry activity across six countries (Burundi, Ghana, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe).
• Food donations and promotions; sponsorship of cultural events; sports sponsorship; health-related donations/activity; education; and entrepreneurship-related competitions were the key activities documented.
• Education programmes and entrepreneurship-related competitions identified here appeared to be mostly directed towards young people.
• Partnerships with charities and government agencies were common across the documented activities.
An in-depth case study of alcohol industry policy activity in South Africa1 focused on the heavily delayed Draft Liquor Amendment Bill 2016. The Bill proposed new rules to limit alcohol advertising, control availability, and hold retailers and manufacturers accountable for harm caused by breaking the regulations. To-date, the Bill has not progressed through the legislative process. We found:
• Activity by 14 alcohol industry organisations related to the Bill between 2016 and 2022, when the Bill was being reviewed before it reached parliament.
• Community representation was low in the meetings we studied where the Bill was discussed, compared to industry, labour, and government.
• Early “regulatory capture” allowed the alcohol industry to influence the Bill’s review. Industry funded socio-economic assessments that slowed the Bill’s progress, and during the Covid-19 pandemic used legal threats and donations to push for self-regulation rather than stronger measures to address alcohol harms.
An in-depth case study of sports sponsorship in Uganda2 found:
• Sports sponsorship was a common practice in Uganda with multiple alcohol brands sponsoring a wide range of sports, including football, basketball and golf.
• Social media posts and news reports emphasised the financial contribution made by the alcohol industry, positioning it as central to the sustainability of sports in the country.
• The sports sponsorship identified in this study often portrayed alcohol brands as a key part of Ugandan culture, using elements of heritage and history in their marketing.
The activities documented here suggest alcohol companies play a central role in the economic, social, and political life in the countries included in the study. Much of this activity follows the same tactics used by other health-harming industries, like tobacco, to prevent effective policies from being implemented globally (6, 7). 1Mitchell, G., Siwela, P., Goldstein, S., and Maker-Diedericks, A. (2025) Alcohol industry involvement in the delayed South Africa DraC Liquor Amendment Bill 2016: a case study based on freedom of informaKon requests, Globaliza(on and Health 21, 11 hLps://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-025-01097-5 2Purves, R., Auma, V., Mitchell, G. and Tumwesigye, N. (2025) Alcohol sports sponsorship in Uganda: A case study analysis, Interna(onal Journal of Alcohol and Drugs Research, hLps://doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.557