Signing ceremony between Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and Santé publique France

Honourable Professor Geneviève Chêne,

Honourable Professor Jérôme Salomon,

Dr Zinna Bessa,

Distinguished guests and colleagues,

I am delighted to be here today, in person, at this signing ceremony between the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and Santé publique France.

This event is the culmination of several years of coordination with the Government of France – including working through the constraints required by the pandemic - at the end of which we have arrived at an agreement to set up another important element to strengthen global implementation of the WHO FCTC. The new knowledge hub that we are formalising today will support work related to Article 12 of the Convention, which requires Parties to use all available communication tools to promote and strengthen public awareness of tobacco-control issues.

We thank the Government, the Ministry of Health and Prevention, the Permanent Mission of France in Geneva, and all colleagues involved in this process for their tireless efforts to bring this knowledge hub into existence and for the resources invested in this project from the outset.

The Global Strategy to Accelerate Tobacco Control 2019-2025, adopted in 2018 by the governing body of the Convention – the Conference of the Parties, calls for the strengthening of the network of knowledge hubs that serve to support the Convention Secretariat in helping Parties implement specific technical areas of the Convention, as well as the decisions of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO FCTC.

This, the ninth knowledge hub in our knowledge management network, will be working in areas regarding which Parties all over the globe have called for assistance, namely: education, communication and raising public awareness.

Effective action in each of these is critical to the successful implementation of every aspect of the Convention, underpinning, for example the optimal targeting of appropriate communication on smoke-free environments, and plain packaging, and the education of stakeholders regarding the need to reduce the environmental impact of tobacco products and the industry that makes and peddles them.

It is therefore of vital importance that we strengthen our guidance and assistance to the Parties in these areas. Progress has already been made along this road, notably in the development of Guidelines for implementation of Article 12 which were adopted by the Conference of the Parties in 2010.

There are several indications that these guidelines have been taken up, as we have seen in the 2021 Global Progress Report on the implementation of the WHO FCTC. That recent report reveals the significant number of Parties implementing education and communication programmes - and many of the Parties acknowledging those efforts to be priorities in their tobacco control work.

However, despite such advances, gaps and challenges still exist, including, of course, the huge challenge presented by the communication efforts of those wishing to disrupt our efforts, by which I mean the tobacco industry and its allies, who invest enormous resources into their campaigns and tactics.  

The new hub will provide opportunities to tap into France’s considerable experience in certain aspects of communication. It will also strengthen the contribution brought by France to the global implementation of the Convention, especially in regard to the needs of developing country Parties and Parties with economies in transition.  In particular, the new knowledge hub will facilitate increased engagement with the francophone Parties, especially in Africa, where, according to the reports we receive, there is great need for technical assistance to establish strong communication programmes to support the implementation of the Convention.

The hub will also enable Santé publique France to partner and work with a broad range of stakeholders in the area of tobacco control, stakeholders who have already accumulated broad expertise on various areas linked to the implementation of the Convention.

I hope it goes without saying that we in the Convention Secretariat are committed to working with Santé publique France to make this collaboration work for our mutual benefit, for the benefit of the Parties to the Convention, and for the benefit of future generations. So I take this opportunity to wish us all every success in this collaboration for many years to come.  

Thank you.

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