Member states of the East African Community ( EAC) have been called upon to accelerate the domestication of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and to take stock of the lessons learnt from the other countries in the region. The EAC Partners were also called upon to develop national targets basing on the nine voluntary global NCD targets for 2025, one which includes reducing tobacco consumption by 30%.
The resolutions were made during a Tobacco control symposium held at the 4th EAC Scientific Conference in Kigali, March 28, 2013. The day’s session was attended by public health practitioners, physicians, researchers, CSOs, economists, policy makers including parliamentarians from the EAC member states as well as members of the East African Legislative Assembly including Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania as well as delegates from Nigeria and Togo.
The symposium was aimed at achieving four main objectives; advocating for the adoption of tobacco control as a priority in the EAC member states; building ownership of tobacco control legislation by the EAC Secretariat; sharing experience and progress of developing evidence-based tobacco control policy and law; and sharing experiences and skills on how best to reduce tobacco use. It was organized by WHO and the Campaign for Tobacco Free kids, with contributions from the CTCA.
The participants observed that increasing the excise tax on tobacco products is one of the most effective ways of reducing consumption and that Illicit trade; manufacturing, smuggling and counterfeiting, is a serious public health challenge as it provides cheap tobacco on the open market.
In a joint communiqué at the end of the symposium, the participants called on all the member States to harmonise taxation regimes to avoid cross-border illicit trade. They also urged all EAC Ministries of Health to proactively provide leadership for comprehensive tobacco control laws in all the five States. Accordingly, the member states were also called upon to create a common tobacco control legislation framework based on experiences in member states that have laws in place or are in the process of enacting such legislation. The participants also recommended that the EAC adopts a multi-sectorial approach to tobacco control and create awareness to build leadership for tobacco control within all government structures in the region