BACKGROUND AND IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES: Effective tobacco control requires strong efforts at the local level, which should be in collaboration with local governments and across sectors beyond health, including various government offices. Guidelines stipulate that local governments are supposed to allocate budgets every year for tobacco control activities and report on them regularly to the Tobacco Control Focal Point. However, these budgets are often diverted to other activities of the local government. In order to keep the tobacco control movement going, definite budget allocations and active participation of local organizations are necessary for substantial achievements.
INTERVENTION OR RESPONSE: WBB Trust, as the secretariat of BATA, in collaboration with NILG, imparted training on tobacco control law and local government guidelines to 66 BATA network organizations and local elected representatives. This training increased the capacity of the members to support officials in implementing tobacco laws. WBB Trust also provided technical assistance to the local organizations in preparing proposals and forwarding letters to relevant authorities, strengthening their advocacy efforts.
RESULTS AND IMPACT: As a result of the training, to make the tobacco control movement sustained relationships between public representatives and network organizations have improved, and tobacco control activities have been strengthened. Additionally, to make these activities more dynamic and sustainable, LGI has allocated funding from its tobacco control-related budget to 9 network organizations of BATA.
CONCLUSIONS: The collaboration between local government, NILG, and BATA network organizations has significantly strengthened tobacco control efforts. This training and budget have brought them closer and established a precedent that local resource can also be used to make tobacco control activity more sustainable and other ministry may be involved with it. Long-term involvement of local organizations and continued funding is a must to ensure long-term success of the tobacco control movement in Bangladesh.