Deputy Minister of Health: H.E. Mrs Lena Nanushyan,
Other authorities from the Armenian Government,
Ambassador of the United Kingdom: H.E. Mr David Moran
Ambassador of the European Union: H.E. Mr Andrea Wiktorin,
UN Resident Coordinator: Mr Shombi Sharp,
WHO Representative: Mr Egor Zaitsev,
UNDP Resident Representative: Mr Dmitry Mariyasin,
Friends and colleagues supporting tobacco control in Armenia,
Good afternoon.
I want to congratulate the Ministry of Health for keeping the attention on tobacco control, especially more so during these difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just to provide an example, a recent study from California shows that 1 in 3 youth adults (18 to 25 years old) are vulnerable to severe COVID and smoking plays a big part in this.
Previous speakers already reminded us of the harms that tobacco causes to all areas of development. All stages of tobacco production and use produce some damage. Poor livelihood of farmers, users dying (tobacco is the only product that if used as intended kills up to half of its users), the economic costs for people and countries and the impact on the environment.
Armenia was one of the first Parties to ratify the WHO FCTC in November 2004.
A second treaty, the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products came into force not long ago, on 25 September 2018, and now has 61 Parties. I hope that Armenia may join this Treaty too, in the near future.
Allow me to say, that the case is clear: implementing the WHO FCTC is a powerful way for governments to improve the lives of their citizens and ensure a better future of their countries.
Implementing the WHO FCTC is key to the success of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Strengthening the implementation of the WHO FCTC, recognized in target 3.a as a means of implementation of Goal 3 to Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages. It also contributes to other SDGs regarding health, poverty, education, environment and governance. For example, Goal 1: ending poverty, Goal 2: ending hunger, Goal 4: supporting quality education, Goal 8: decent work and economic growth, Goal 11: sustainable cities and communities, and Goal 14: life below water.
Implementing the WHO FCTC requires a whole of government approach and policy coherence in all fora – health, economy, trade, etc. – is essential to protect the Armenian people and the economy.
Through our FCTC 2030 project, generously funded with official development assistance from the United Kingdom, Australia and Norway, the Convention Secretariat, UNDP and WHO are delivering focused support to selected Parties to accelerate implementation of the WHO FCTC.
Among the 28 Parties who applied to be part of the FCTC 2030 project in this second round, Armenia was one of nine Parties selected.
This is because Armenia has demonstrated strong leadership in tobacco control and made great progress as we witness this with the adoption of a new comprehensive tobacco control legislation in February this year.
However, up to now, almost one-third of the Armenian population use tobacco products (27.9%) and more than a half of Armenian men are smokers (51.5%). Smoking by men is among the highest in the WHO European Region.
And even more concerning, smoking is still perceived as an attractive behavior by adolescents.
In another aspect, about one-third (26.6%) of Armenians are exposed to secondhand smoke at workplaces and more than half (56.4%) at homes.
So we can see that smoking is still a widely accepted social norm. And we need to change that norm, making not smoking the normal behaviour.
Armenia has very low tobacco tax rates making tobacco highly affordable when compared to other countries in the region. In this situation, the government is also missing out on useful new revenue that comes through strong tobacco tax as recommended by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development. Specially in this times, as part of the COVID-19 recovery plans, this can be an important means of domestic revenue, that at the same time, decreases consumption of tobacco and prevent future costs for the health sector, due to the decrease in new noncommunicable diseases.
There is much work to do and the Convention Secretariat, together with its partners in this project, are here to support Armenia through the FCTC 2030 project.
Thank you very much to all.