Project: Establishing a mechanism for tobacco control advocacy

Activity report

(September, 2003 – April, 2004)

Konstantin Krasovsky
International Policy Fellowship, 2003

The work on the project during the second part of the fellowship year had several major
aspects. Each of the four major type of activities outlined below proved to be an effective
strategy of tobacco control advocacy.

1.    Monitoring tobacco industry's misinformation and lobbying tactics by media monitoring and other sources.
Activities:
a)    Business journals and key newspapers in Ukraine were monitored for tobacco industry activities as well as tobacco control activities.
b)    Monitoring tobacco industry internal documents in international depositaries were used to for the final research paper Fighting for tobacco control legislation in Ukraine – five draft tobacco control laws in one year.
c)    Tobacco industry documents were also used to prepare press-release on Philip Morris campaign in media on light cigarettes (October, 2003) http://www.adic.org.ua/nosmoking/ns/no_sm_50.htm .

2.    Conducting country applied research in tobacco control legislation and economics and presenting their results in brief and clear publications for decision makers
Activities:
a)    Research paper “Fighting for tobacco control legislation in Ukraine – five draft tobacco control laws in one year” was prepared and published online http://www.policy.hu/krasovsky/finrespaper.html . .
b)    The booklet on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was prepared and published in February in Ukrainian. This booklet demonstrates that real aim of such programs is political lobbying to have legislation favorable to tobacco industry http://adic.org.ua/nosmoking/books/unicef/prev-prog/index.html .
c)    Second edition of booklet “Problems of anti-tobacco legislation” (first edition see http://www.adic.org.ua/nosmoking/books/policybook/index.html ) is preparing. It should be published in June, 2004.

3.    Strengthening tobacco control non-governmental organization movement
Activities:
a)    The booklet on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was used as background of the NGO Coalition For Tobacco-Free Ukraine letters to the government and parliament on the FCTC signing and ratification;
b)    These letters and other materials were published at the web-site of the NGO Coalition For Tobacco-Free Ukraine (www.adic.org.ua/coalition );
c)    NGO members from Ukraine were trained in advocacy skills at the WHO seminars in March and April 2004.

4.    Tobacco control political mapping
Activities:
a)    Tobacco control law was adopted by the parliament on first reading in November, 2003. I took part in working group, which prepared this draft law for the second reading. The parliament Committee on Health Protection adopted draft law for the second reading in March. While some our proposals were not included in general this draft law is progressive. It is expected that the parliament will vote this draft law in May, 2004.
b)    I continue to identify tobacco control supporters and opponents among: members of the parliament; staff of the parliament; governmental officials; media; NGO movement. I already have some results, but taking into account that tobacco control draft law will be considered soon in the parliament I prefer to keep it confidential.

Some results of the research work were presented at several international conferences:
1)    OSI Conference in Tbilisi, Georgia, September 2003.
2)    Seminar for tobacco control activist in Armenia, September 2003.
3)    Congressional briefing on Tobacco Control, Washington, DC, February 2004.

Main results of the research will be presented at the Tobacco Control Legislation Workshop (Melbourne, April 26-30, 2004) and the National Conference on Tobacco Control (Kiev, May, 28, 2004).