Project report for March – August 2003
The first three months of the project were dedicated to the collection of the necessary information and the establishment of working contacts. According to the project schedule I conducted the survey among journalists, representatives of NGOs and medical institutions, involved in the anti-smoking advocacy or able to be engaged in this activity. The survey included 35 journalists who write about health and health policy, 15 NGOs working in the sphere of health and environment and 5 medical institutions responsible for the health information communication such as the National Center for Preventive Medicine, the Narcological Clinic, Oncological and Cardiocenters, Medical University. The questionnaire was rather small and was aimed at evaluating the knowledge about the national tobacco policy, the attitude to this policy, the knowledge about the Framework convention as currently the most important international tobacco control agreement, and the intention/willingness and possibilities of collaboration in the sphere of anti-smoking informational advocacy in the country.
The analysis of the questionnaire demonstrated that on the one hand, there is a group of people who believe that the society should take measures to improve the tobacco control situation in the country. On the other hand, the same group of people believes that the society is hardy able to take over the tobacco mafia and achieve significant changes in the tobacco control policy in the nearest future. The fact that such public apathy and nihilism of journalists towards any initiatives of the government (which was even noticed by the representatives of the Europarliament who visited Moldova in the beginning of the current local government elections period) is characteristic for the contemporary Moldovan society is a poor consolation. Yet, it seems to me, that this double-mindness and pessimism only prove the necessity to conduct a research in this area and take measures to change the public attitude to the tobacco epidemics, moreover that the majority of the interviewees agreed to collaborate. The materials of this survey were used for the chapter “Public opinion of Moldovans about tobacco and governmental policy”.
I conducted a comparative analysis of the Law on tobacco and tobacco products
adopted on July, 2001, the amendments to this law of September 2002 and the
program of the development of tobacco industry adopted at the end of 2002. I
also prepared a selection of the documentation related to the production and
sale of tobacco products. Unfortunately, due to the local elections that took
place in the period of April-June, it was impossible to get a copy of the draft
law which bans smoking in public places and which was turned down as a result
of the protest from the Ministry of Agriculture as well as any update about
the development of the situation. Any information about the future of this draft
was also unavailable since the Minister of Justice who supported this draft
was fired and the employees of the department of the Ministry of Justice who
participated in the design of the draft refused to discuss the subject. They
explained the refusal by an order of the new minister. One of the project authors
even considered refused to participate in the Bucharest conference on building
coalition on tobacco control considering her participation useless and impossible.
I had to ask the press secretary of the prime minister to help me to receive
the information about the project and read it. I could do this only on 27 August.
This delayed my work on the chapter “Moldovan legislation on tobacco control:
yesterday, today and tomorrow”.
The project schedule envisioned organization of various actions in order to
ensure practical applicability of the project. These actions were supposed to
enliven the tobacco control discussion in the press and society and vivify the
activity of those NGOs who could participate in the anti-tobacco advocacy among
population. Thus, we organized two seminars for NGOs in the distant areas of
the country (the League of students, Balti, and association Terra, village Vornicheni).These
NGOs have previously expressed the interest to such seminars. The seminar subjects
included the Framework Convention, the necessity of this international agreement
and national programs, as well as potential participation of NGOs in the anti-tobacco
advocacy at different levels (see
information)
Informational materials, FAQs about the Convention, “educational”
campaigns of tobacco producers, etc were prepared for the seminars. Similar
materials were distributed among journalists after the completion of INB-5.
These materials were used in the preparation of the articles about the FCTC
and upcoming World Health Assembly (see: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7).
Among other activities completed during this period are:
1) the traditional contest of essays and drawings “Let’s grow up
without tobacco” targeted at children and youth,
2) publication of the album of the best submissions,
3) publication of three posters to be distributed among schools and medical
institutions,
4) the celebration party for the contest winners with the participation of the
vice minister of health Dr. Bahnarel, vice president of the state broadcasting
company of Moldova Mr. Teleshku, and Sabine Koch, team leader of the project
Health promotion and diseases prevention sponsored by the EU,
5) press conference organized in collaboration with the MoH and Narcologic Clinic.
This event was dedicated to the coming WNTD
6) finally, I participated in three radio programs disseminating the information
about the Framework convention and its potential influence on the tobacco control
policy of Moldova.
The monitoring of publications about tobacco in the Moldovan press was done on a regular basis. The materials of the monitoring were used in the preparation of the stakeholders’ analysis.
Unfortunately, the portal www.mednet.md which was supposed to host the first Moldovan anti-tobacco site, has been in the transitional stage from the beginning of this year (changing the management affiliation from the Soros Foundation to the Ministry of Health. The delayed launching of the website featuring media publications and other subject related materials.
The biggest part of June and July was allocated for the collection of data
for the chapter
“Foreign tobacco producers in the fight for the Moldovan market”.
I had several consultations with representatives of the Customs authorities
and Mr. Salogub, head of the marketing and information section of the Department
of tobacco industry. By the request of Dr Anna Gilmore (European Centre on Health
of Societies in Transition) I researched the question of privatization of the
Moldovan tobacco industry and prepared reports on recent promotional actions
of BAT in Moldova. I co-authored the article «Pushing up smoking incidence:
a review of transnational tobacco company plans for a privatized tobacco industry
in Moldova», and then translated the article into Russian for the publication
in the Russian speaking media.
I participated in the March and June seminars in Budapest where I learned the
difference between research paper and policy paper and decided to restructure
my work and the organization of policy analysis. In the end of April I participated
in the Open Society Institute Conference on Building Coalitions for Tobacco
Control (Bucharest). In August I attended the 12th World Conference on Tobacco
or Health (Helsinki), where I presented two case studies (“Art Contest
as a Method of Encouraging Negative Attitudes Towards Smoking Among Children
and Adolescents: The Experience of Moldova” and “Confronting Tobacco
Companies Promotional Actions: Moldovan Mass Media Against British American
Tobacco Youth Campaign”). By the request of
Anna White (Global Partnerships for Tobacco Control Essential Action) I prepared
a visual presentation of the advertising activity of BAT and other importers
of tobacco products in Moldova. Both posters prepared for this event were awarded
the title “the best poster of the day”.