This year has seen The Union's grantees under the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use make important advances in tobacco control. As acknowledged by a recent five-year report from Bloomberg on the Initiative, country by country, progress is being made towards fulfilling the requirements of the world's first public health treaty, the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).
"The Union worked with grantees in over 30 countries with a high burden of tobacco use this year, and they made significant progress under often challenging conditions", said Dr Ehsan Latif, Director of The Union's Department of Tobacco Control. "These advances also set important precedents and demonstrate to other countries what can be accomplished, so their impact is literally worldwide. Whether our support was financial or technical, we applaud the efforts of our grantees to affect change in their countries' legislation and reduce tobacco's harm to the individuals that use it and those who are exposed to it".
Highlights of grantees' achievements in 2011:
In Asia:
In the absence of nation-wide smoking bans, cities in China and some districts in India had put local measures in place to reduce exposure to second-hand smoke. Though public support for tobacco control has been on the rise, they have had to contend with an increasingly aggressive tobacco industry (TI). In China, as in many other countries local laws are often easier to implement than national legislation because of strong TI influence. In Pakistan, a Union grantee has filed a complaint against the TI for violating advertising rules.
In the Middle East:
Egypt has been in political transition this year, but it has remained committed to tobacco control issues and has therefore raised tobacco taxes a further 10%. In Lebanon, after years of debate in Parliament over a proposed tobacco control law, The Union's grantee and its partners finally secured a victory with the passage of a law there that includes smoking and advertising bans, among other provisions. The Union was recognised recently as a key player in achieving a success that will have widespread implications for the region as a whole.
In Europe:
Poland's MANKO Association has been one of most successful grantees, winning accolades for their campaigns. Their work over the past few years has garnered much public support and interest, and they have created a dynamic project, the Smoke Free Zones campaign that has influenced people's attitude towards smoking. In the Russian Federation, comprehensive draft legislation is being put forward to the government for deliberation. The legislation will include provisions that are strongly in-line with the FCTC.
In Latin America:
Finally, in Latin America, Brazil demonstrated that after successful implementation of local tobacco control law, national legislation is not far behind and on 15 December its President signed off on the law. The Union has offered extensive technical and legal support for grantees in the region, including Chile, where smokefree environments legislation was recently debated in the Lower House of Congress.
Project Ideas for Round 11 BI grants due 23 January
Project Ideas are now being accepted for Round 11 of the Grants Programme under the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use. The deadline is 15:00, US Eastern Standard Time (GMT -5 hours) on Monday, 23 January 2012.
For more information about the stories mentioned above, please visit our region pages:
• Europe