In early March, HBSA submitted a proposal to the AB InBev Foundation and won the AB InBev Measurement and Evaluation Global Smart Drinking Goals (GSDGs). Our proposal included the development of a comprehensive evaluation methodology, measurement approach and overall plan to assess achievement of the Foundation’s efforts to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. This international M&E project also includes data collection coordination and analysis. It will be serviced by PIRE’s supporting organization HBSA, and is currently scheduled to continue through 2025.
AB InBev is the largest brewer in the world. In 2015, the company established a set of Global Smart Drinking Goals that included reducing the harmful use of alcohol by 10% in six cities around the world by 2020 and implementing best practices globally by end 2025. The AB InBev Foundation was established to lead the implementation of the evidence based strategies and provide an evaluation for Global Smart Drinking Goals effort. Our frequent collaborators, John Clapp at Ohio State University and Jim Lange at San Diego State University, were contracted to develop the interventions and provide technical assistance in implementation.
Ted Miller will serve as the Co-Principal Investigator and Project Director and Chris Ringwalt will serve as the Co-Principal Investigator and Deputy Director. Mary Gordon will serve as the Project Manager. Other key staff include: Joel Grube, M.J. Paschall, Eduardo Romano, Matt Courser and Julie Yao. Chris led the rapid-paced proposal team and Mary served as the Proposal Manager. Throughout the negotiations and contract phase, we drew on guidance from many PIRE scientists to develop language and procedures that ensure we can conduct a scholarly, independent, and non-biased evaluation. This also includes written assurances in our contract that we will be free to publish the evaluation’s results in peer reviewed journals of our choice, without either oversight or approval from the AB InBev Foundation or AB InBev. While we will extend to our client the right to review and comment on advanced drafts of our manuscripts, we will also specify that we alone will be responsible for the content of what we submit.
The schedule for the development of the AB InBev proposal was highly compressed, and I congratulate our many colleagues who pitched in, under very short notice, to develop and support the submission. We look forward to this exciting new project. |
