The present report summarizes the main outcomes of a WHO workshop on the implementation of alcohol control policies in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which can be considered as “first movers” of implementing alcohol control policies. Despite their crucial contribution to reaching the noncommunicable disease (NCD) target of a 10% reduction in the harmful use of alcohol by 2025 in the WHO European Region, CIS countries often remain as under-researched success stories of alcohol control.

This workshop, which was held on 4-5 December 2019 in Moscow, Russian Federation, was aimed at changing this and creating a platform for knowledge and experience exchange among CIS countries. The report documents the main outcomes of the first meeting of representatives of all CIS Member States as well as technical experts on alcohol control and highlights the many effective and cost-effective measures that have been introduced in these countries to reduce alcohol-attributable harms.