Thank you, moderator.
Esteemed Colleagues, Dear Participants and friends:
On behalf of the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, it is a privilege to join you today for the opening of this virtual training series aimed at strengthening the implementation of Article 5 of the WHO FCTC in the Region of Americas.
The Region of the Americas is well advanced in tobacco control.
As Member States of the Pan American Health Organization, you all have committed to the Strategy and Plan of Action to Strengthen Tobacco Control in the Region of the Americas 2018–2022.
Thirty countries from the Region that are Parties to the WHO FCTC – in action taken at the 8th Session of the Conference of the Parties in Geneva in October 2018 – also endorsed the Global Strategy to Accelerate Tobacco Control 2019–2025 in order to advance sustainable development through the implementation of the Convention.
As we all know, implementation of the WHO FCTC accelerates action to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
And it is for that reason that the WHO FCTC is cited as a means to implement SDG 3.4, which calls for a one-third reduction in premature mortality from NCDs.
More specifically, SDG Target 3.a calls for all countries to strengthen implementation of the WHO FCTC in order to decrease adult tobacco use by 30% by 2030.
I want to acknowledge that – as a Region – the Americas is on the track to achieve a 30% decrease in tobacco use among adults by 2030.
But the WHO FCTC has an impact even beyond SDG 3, as implementation of the Convention contributes to the achievement other SDGs and targets, including poverty reduction, education, protection of the environment, governance and other development issues.
Please allow me to refer now to the objective of this training ¬– Article 5 of the WHO FCTC, which deals with the General Obligations of the Parties.
Unfortunately, this is not one of the most implemented articles of the Convention, and that is why this training is so important.
Article 5 provides basic guidance for Parties in relation to governance of tobacco control, underlying the basic need for an intersectoral approach. The health sector – alone – cannot develop and implement all the measures needed to curb the tobacco epidemic.
While tobacco control demands strong leadership from the health sector, a whole-of-government approach and strong intersectoral coordination to ensure policy coherence across sectors also are required.
There is a need for coordination and cooperation with non-health ministries, such as finance for strong tax policies and enforcement agencies for the prevention and control of illicit trade, just to name a few.
And all this work requires of an adequate and sustainable budget and availability of a sufficient number of experienced human resources.
This article also deals with – and it is probably the most well-known part of the article – the protection of public health policies related to tobacco control from the interference of the tobacco industry and of those who work to further its interests.
Point 3 of the article is so important that Parties developed Guidelines for its implementation.
Despite these efforts, 16 years after the Convention entered into force, Parties continue to cite interference of the tobacco industry as the biggest obstacle to the advancement of tobacco control.
I am sure you have all experienced in your countries the thousand ways in which the tobacco industry tries to undermine your work – lobbying, disseminating fake information, and proposing pseudo corporate social responsibility programmes that are only a disguise for promotion and sponsorship by the tobacco industry.
And the industry has not missed the opportunity that the global COVID-19 pandemic has provided to offer its so-called “help” to countries.
I know – after being in the Region for so many in my previous life – that there are numerous success stories in the Americas, and I hope that this workshop will be an excellent opportunity for exchanging those experiences.
Last but not least, I want to remind the need for considering the ratification of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products for those Parties to the WHO FCTC that have not done so yet.
As I conclude, I wish to sincerely thank the donors of the FCTC 2030 project – the governments of Australia, Norway and the United Kingdom – for supporting this workshop as part of the regional activities of the FCTC 2030 project.
I wish also to sincerely thank my colleagues from PAHO for organizing this virtual training series and for their continuous support to the work of the Convention Secretariat.
I also thank the United Nations Development Programme, WHO and civil society colleagues for their close collaboration in this project.
Thank you.