The 2030 agenda for sustainable development calls for increased effort to implement the WHO FCTC. Doing so will play a major part in meeting the Sustainable Development Goal target of reducing premature deaths from noncommunicable diseases by 30% by 2030.
The WHO FCTC is the most powerful tool available to counter tobacco’s negative impacts on development. It contains both tobacco demand and supply reduction measures. In particular, Article 6 of the WHO FCTC encourages price and tax measures to reduce demand for tobacco. These include tax increases resulting in an increase in the sales price of tobacco products, and prohibiting or restricting sales of tax- and duty-free tobacco products.
In line with the WHO FCTC, WHO introduced the MPOWER measures in 2008, which are a set of 6 cost-effective and high impact measures that help countries reduce demand for tobacco.
These measures include:
Monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies
Protecting people from tobacco smoke
Offering help to quit tobacco use
Warning about the dangers of tobacco
Enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
Raising taxes on tobacco.
Increasing tobacco tax and prices has proven to be one of the most effective, yet least utilized tobacco control measures that countries can use to address various development issues. Increased tobacco taxation revenues will strengthen domestic resource mobilization, creating the fiscal space needed for countries to meet development priorities under the 2030 agenda.
It is essential that tobacco control measures reach those who are most affected. By increasing prices, taxation protects the poor from exposure to a product that kills and causes disease. Taxation, in fact, is the most effective means to motivate current tobacco users to quit, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Tobacco taxes also reduce exposure to secondhand smoke among non-smokers, including children and women.
Measures exist to also control tobacco supply. The Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products to the WHO FCTC is the key policy tool to reduce tobacco use and its health and economic consequences. Other measures, such as supporting viable alternatives to tobacco production, and restricting access of children and youth to tobacco products, are effective, especially as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce tobacco use.
