Gambia, 10 December 2007 -- The ratification by the National Assembly of the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in June 2007 was indeed an important mile stone in the history of tobacco control in a country like The Gambia where smoking and other forms of tobacco use are presumed to be on the increase.

What makes it even more important is the fact that the Assembly ratified the Convention without reservation; a move seen as a demonstration of commitment by policy makers to tobacco control.

However, ratification is one thing but building consensus on the implementation of the provisions of the Convention is another critical dimension of the whole process.

With financial support from TOB/AFRO, the WHO Country Office in collaboration with the Department of State for Health and Social Welfare and RAID-Gambia, a grass root non-governmental organization, recently concluded a nationwide consultations on the WHO FCTC.

A total of 41 consultative forums were held in 39 districts and two municipalities in the country, which took the form of presentations and discussions on every article of the Convention mainly in English and local languages. A total of 1534 participants including parliamentarians and other policy and opinion leaders, technocrats, district authorities, local communities, civil society groups and individuals from across the country took part in the discussions.

The district/municipality consultations were later followed by a national consultative forum to further discuss the Convention with a view to building national consensus on the implementation of its provisions.

Some of the recommendations that emerged from the discussions include:

• Increase taxation by 100% on all tobacco products imported into the country
• Enforcement of the Public Smoking Act
• Ban on tobacco importation
• Imposition of a ban on the sale of tobacco to children or minors
• Create a national tobacco control programme unit
• Launch regular intensive anti-tobacco control campaigns

A consolidated report is being prepared which will be shared with AFRO and other interested partners in and outside the country.

It must be emphasized that ratification process came as a result of the WHO Country Office applying a combination of different but complementary strategies/approaches based on the principles of health promotion. Some of these approaches include:

• Launching of World No-Tobacco Days at the National Assembly grounds and schools, using youth parliamentarians to spearhead this
• Empowering youth to mobilize and lobby policy makers in support of the Convention
• Community sensitization using traditional and conventional media
• Continuous advocacy at different levels