The UN Resident Coordinator for Uganda, Ms. Ahunna Eziakonwa-Onochie,has assured WHO and the Centre for Tobacco Control in Africa ( CTCA) of the commitment of the UN Agencies to support tobacco control. This was communicated in response to a brief address to the UN Country Team (UNCT) Session in Kampala, by a Team of WHO and CTCA tobacco control experts on Monday February 25, 2013. The Team was led by Prof. Robert Machang’u, the WHO – Regional Office for Africa-AFRO, who is the one of the Capacity Development Team for the Centre.
CTCA was launched by WHO in November, 2011 and is hosted by the Makerere University School of Public Health, Kampala. The Mission of CTCA is to advance tobacco control by working together with African governments in the context of the WHO-FCTC. The purpose of the visit to the UNCT was to raise interest in tobacco control among the UN agencies in Uganda and to urge the Agencies to consider including tobacco control in their country support programs.
The CTCA Manager, Dr. Possy Mugyenyi stressed the need for a coordinated response to Tobacco Control and noted that the impact of tobacco use goes beyond NCDs, to include maternal and child health, and an aggravation of infectious diseases including Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. He explained that even at the farm level, tobacco growing causes irreversible environmental degradation, food insecurity, and perpetual poverty at the household levels.
Dr. Mugyenyi said that the stage for a coordinated response to the WHO-Framework Convention on Tobacco Control ( FCTC) has already been set at various fora some of which include;
- The Political Declaration of the High Level Meeting of UN General Assembly on Prevention and Control of NCDs adopted on 19th Sept, 2011
- The Economic and Social Council-UN Systems Wide Coherence on Tobacco control, calling for integration of FCTC implementation in the context of the NCD Declaration (2011)
- Efforts for the integration of FCTC within UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) to promote coordinated work among funds, programs and specialised agencies
- A Joint letter/ call by WHO’s Director General and UNDP Administrator calling for a comprehensive and integrated approach to tackle NCDs at country level.
In response, the Resident Coordinator pointed out that tobacco control is one of the pillars of the UN in its efforts towards reducing Non – communicable Diseases (NCDs). Ms. Ahunna Eziakonwa-Onochie further said the WHO/CTCA-UNCT interface had come timely as the UN Agencies were planning for the next phase of the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) and that it will motivate the Agencies to consider how best to integrate tobacco control into the Development Assistance Framework. She urged for a for follow-up forum for both parties to engage in an in-depth discussion on the way forward.