Join us on Thursday, May 21, at 10:00 a.m. (Washington, DC time or EST) on the webinar "Progress and Challenges in Health Taxes in the Americas: Monitoring Results". Based on information provided by the Ministries of Health and Finance of countries in the Americas, PAHO prepared regional reports on the use of taxes on alcoholic beverages and sweetened beverages, while Johns Hopkins University produced the Cigarette Tax Scorecard for Latin America and the Caribbean. These reports provide an overview of the state of implementation of these policies as of 2024, the main changes observed since monitoring began, as well as the persistent challenges to achieving effective implementation.
Objectives of the webinar
- Present to Member States the regional reports on the monitoring of taxes on alcoholic beverages and sweetened beverages in the Americas.
- Present to Member States the results of the Cigarette Tax Scorecard for Latin America and the Caribbean, developed by Johns Hopkins University.
How to participate
- DATE: Thursday, May 21, 2026
- TIME: 10:00 a.m. (Washington, DC time or EST) [Check at the end of the page the time in other cities]
- LANGUAGES: Spanish and English, with simultaneous interpretation.
- REGISTER: https://paho-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mwXOOzOMSDKKnGwdOHhmsg#/registration
Agenda
10:00 a.m. Openings
10:05 a.m. Why advance health tax policies? Rationale for health taxes in the region’s macroeconomic context
10:15 a.m. Cigarette Tax Scorecard in Latin America and the Caribbean: progress and challenges
10:30 a.m. Status and trends in the taxation of alcoholic beverages and sweetened beverages in the Americas
10:45 a.m. Panel: ¿Cuál es la postura de la región respecto a los impuestos a la salud? Una mirada hacia el futuro
11:05 a.m. Questions and answers from participants
11:15 a.m. Closing
Context
A key element in advancing health tax policies is monitoring their implementation. Having accurate, relevant, and comparable information on prices and taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverages supports countries in designing and implementing effective fiscal measures for health.
Since 2016, PAHO has initiated a process of discussion and monitoring of the progress of tax policies on alcoholic beverages and sugar-sweetened beverages in the Region of the Americas. This effort constituted a pioneering initiative in monitoring health fiscal policies, as it developed harmonized indicators to have a comparable overview of the implementation of these measures across different countries in the region.
Starting in 2022, the WHO expanded this regional experience to carry out global monitoring of the implementation of these taxes. Recently, a new data collection and analysis exercise was conducted, with information updated to 2024.
Similarly, the WHO has been collecting information on prices and taxes of tobacco products since 2008. Based on these data, Johns Hopkins University developed the Cigarette Tax Scorecard, a tool that evaluates the quality and effectiveness of tobacco tax policies at both global and regional levels.
Time in other cities
- 7:00 a.m. – Los Angeles, Vancouver.
- 8:00 a.m. - Belmopan, Guatemala City, Managua, Mexico City, San Salvador, San José (Costa Rica), Tegucigalpa.
- 9:00 a.m. - Bogotá, Kingston, Lima, Panama City, Quito,
- 10:00 a.m. - Havana, Port-au-Prince, Nassau, Ottawa, Washington D.C., Bridgetown, Caracas, Georgetown, La Paz, Port of Spain, San Juan, Santo Domingo, Saint George's, Saint John's (Antigua), Santiago.
- 11:00 a.m. – Asunción, Buenos Aires, Brasilia, Montevideo, Paramaribo.
- 4:00 p.m. – Geneva, Madrid.
For other cities, check the local times in the following link.