Regional plan of action for tobacco control

Abstract

As part of the General Obligations under Article 5 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (‎FCTC)‎, each Party shall develop, implement and periodically update and review multisectoral national tobacco control strategies, plans of action and programmes in order to fully comply with the provisions of the Convention. In order to provide some general guidelines on how to develop these strategies and plans of action, the Regional Strategy for Tobacco Control and Regional Plan of Action for Tobacco Control were developed by the Regional Office. The Regional Strategy contains the vision and strategic plan for tobacco control in the WHO South-East Asia Region for the next five years (‎2006-2010)‎. The Plan of Action was based on the Regional Strategy for Tobacco Control (‎2006-2010)‎. While the Convention provides guidelines to reduce the harm from tobacco, definitive actions to control tobacco have to take place at the country level. The successful implementation of the FCTC provisions depends almost entirely on the ability of the countries. Some countries in the Region have already developed their national strategies and plans of action and others are in the process of doing so. These two documents would be helpful in revising the existing national strategies and plans of action in countries that have already developed the same to make them fully compatible with the WHO FCTC. The documents would also be helpful developing national strategies and plans of action by countries which have not yet done so.