Global Tobacco Control Advocacy, Towards Post-2015: An Evaluation of Challenges, Analysis Within the Public Policy Context, and Recommendations Moving Forward

Abstract

Public health advocacy at the global level requires strategic relationship-building with governments, non-governmental organizations, and private sector leaders to increase awareness, and incentivize funding and resource accumulation, and spur action devoted to global health and development priorities. The UNAIDS and Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (Global Fund) represent perhaps the most influential global health advocacy campaign to date. For years, UNAIDS and the Global Fund have been able to maintain political, private and public awareness about HIV/AIDS, as well as stimulate high-profile championing and increased-funding in support of the cause. The global tobacco control (global TC) regime – currently comprised of intergovernmental organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO), NGOs, international philanthropic organizations, member state governments, businesses and individuals – has realized remarkable success despite the relative youthfulness of its global advocacy efforts, which includes the completion of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the WHO’s first and only international treaty. Despite its early success, however, global TC faces considerable challenges to continued and maintained achievement. As with other health-related issues, heading into the post-Millennium-Development-Goals development era, the global TC regime stands to benefit from assessing its current global advocacy efforts. The objective of this report is thus twofold: a. To systematically evaluate global TC regime advocacy challenges; and b. To make recommendations on how to both bolster current TC advocacy efforts and address the identified challenges. This objective is executed within the context of lessons learned from other major global public health campaigns and issues, as well as contemporary public policy and administration theory and practice.