JHSPH Report Evaluates Tactics Used to Implement SSB Taxation in Mexico

A Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) report
on Mexico’s sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax has concluded that
“strong advocacy work, scientific evidence, and knowledge of the
political context can be important facilitators to policy change that
promotes obesity prevention and control.” The case study highlights the
strategies used by civil society organizations, public interest lobbyists,
health and government officials, and other SSB-tax proponents to (i)
build coalitions, (ii) persuade legislators to support the initiative, (iii)
generate media attention, and (iv) leverage the perspectives of national
and international experts. In particular, it notes that successful advocacy
campaigns must “understand the political context to capitalize on
windows of opportunity.”

“Overall, it is essential that policy proponents know the political
context—the system’s structure and the needs of political actors—to act
on opportunities that could promote public health goals within broader
government pursuits and reforms,” notes the report. “Regardless of the
underlying rationale for the tax in Mexico, advocates were able to get it
passed in part because they were aware of the planned political agenda
for fiscal reform and they were able to use the government’s public
presentation of a health rationale to support their primary argument for
the tax—to reduce obesity and diabetes.”

Issue 571