On behalf of the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, I am delighted to provide a few thoughts on how the WHO FCTC could relate to the tackling the rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases.
Internationally negotiated, legally binding, and in force since February 2005, the WHO FCTC prescribes its Parties a set of evidence-based measures. Scaling up the implementation of the WHO FCTC is fundamental to further reducing global tobacco prevalence, and by doing so, to beat NCDs, and to save lives.
To be effective, Interventions under the Convention must be multisectoral, must count on the broadest possible range of stakeholders, including civil society, health professionals’ organizations, the academia, but excluding the tobacco industry, due to the inherent contradiction between the interest of tobacco industry and public health interests.
The support of the entire United Nations system, at national and global level, is critical, as is the integration of WHO FCTC implementation with broader health and development programmes.
Implementation of the Treaty is now one of the SDG targets. Target 3.a calls to Strengthen the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in all countries, as appropriate. It is also part of the Montevideo Road-map on NCDs adopted last October.
The lessons learned in tobacco control could be utilized in the control and prevention of other NCD related risk factors. The know how that was gathered in the 13 years spent since the entry into force of implementation of the Convention, are critical ingredients of any NCD control effort and a blueprint of how other NCD risk factors could be addressed.
The 8th session of the Conference of the Parties that will take place next week in Geneva, Switzerland, will consider a global action plan to control tobacco. If adopted and implemented, this new global strategy will allow for better inetegration, prioritization, and coordinated action to tackle the global tobacco epidemic and control the use of traditional and new/emerging tobacco products.
The Secretariat would therefore highly recommend that Parties to the Convention as well as other countries introduce or strengthen tobacco control policies in line with the WHO FCTC, to reduce deaths from NCDs as part of their implementation of WHO’s Global Action Plan on NCDs and that of the SDGs.