Ghana: Tobacco Control Training Workshop for Journalist

Source from:  ghana.gov.gh 09/29/2014

The Vision for Alternative Development (VALD) in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service with support from the Corporate Accountability International has held a Tobacco Control Training workshop for Journalists ahead of the Conference of the Parties (COP6) in Accra.
 
VALD, a non-governmental organisation is established to promote an alternative development and initiative at all levels of society with its main objective of advocating for health promotion, good governance and peace building.

COP is the governing body of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and comprises all Parties (178 countries) to the Convention.

The Executive Director ,VALD,  Issah Ali said the key implementation element of FCTC Article 5.3 was to raise awareness that tobacco products were addictive and deadly, also tobacco smoke causes disease, disability and death.  "Disseminate knowledge of the tobacco industry's tactics of using individuals, front groups and affiliated organisations to further the tobacco industry's interests," he added.

According to Mr Ali, the purpose of Article 5.3 was to ensure that efforts to protect tobacco control from commercial and other vested interest of the tobacco industry were comprehensive and effective.

However, parties should implement measures in all branches of government that may have an interest in, or the capacity to affect public health policies with respect to tobacco control.

The Executive Director stated that awareness of tobacco industry tactics to undermine the FCTC was low outside of the health arena, which was problematic because implementation requires multi-sectoral co-ordination, and there was no global co-ordinating mechanism for Article 5.3 implementation and Parties were not adequately aware of or using existing tools and monitoring as a result were some implementation challenges.

On his part, the Programmes Director, VALD, Mr. Labram Musah in his presentation on holding tobacco industry accountable and public badges in meetings of parties, noted that there were two groups namely the expert group and the working group.

Mr. Labram Musah explained that the expert group proposed that the secretariat took immediate specific actions to encourage the voluntary sharing of relevant information among Parties through a protected website, developed a database of legal and scientific experts and prepare and make available to Parties a comprehensive list of existing resources.

He advised participants to educate themselves by reading the expert group's report and their policies and flyers, educate key ministries by setting a briefing, address concerns and ID questions.

He further stated that Government commitments were needed and asked government to fund the working group. Enditem