BACKGROUND AND IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES: Despite considerable success in tobacco control over the previous decades, it has been difficult for tobacco control advocates to engage government officials in proper implementation of FCTC Article 5.3. Policymakers have remained focus on issues such as advertising and product labeling, while ignoring or denying the existence of tobacco industry interference in policymaking and other areas.
INTERVENTION OR RESPONSE: With the aforementioned issue in mind, WBB Trust, in collaboration with BATA, developed a strategy which focused on NGOs and universities instead of government institutions. They informed them of the tactics of the tobacco industry, for example, the sponsorship of quizzes and job fairs for the youth. WBB called upon those institutions to endorse and disseminate a code of conduct that prohibits them from receiving such sponsorships or working with the tobacco industry. This approach proved to be effective, since five prominent universities, Bangladesh Medical Student Society (BMSS) with 15000 medical students, Bangladesh Cancer Society, as well as 152 institutions endorsed the code, which is a major step towards resisting and preventing interference by the industry.
RESULTS AND IMPACT: By publicizing these codes of conduct, we are thus able to place pressure on government to do likewise. Bangladesh Railway responded positively to our suggestion and took the initiative to sign a code of conduct themselves, the first government agency to do so. The National Tobacco Control Cell has also moved forward with a code of conduct, though to date it is not yet signed.
CONCLUSIONS: While we are in the early stages of this process, we hope to have continuing success in convincing government departments to sign codes of conduct and be transparent about any remaining interactions with the tobacco industry, in order to gain full compliance with the FCTC Article 5.3 and prevent the tobacco industry from continuing its activities in weakening law enforcement and taxation policy.