The Impact of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Are international conventions effective tools for policy reform generally and to combat smoking specifically? In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) passed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to combat tobacco use across the world. What have been the effects?

In this Breakfast Seminar, Professor Steven J. Hoffmann from the York University’s Global Strategy Lab, will present his path breaking research on the impact of the FCTC on global cigarette consumption followed by a conversation with professor Ole Frithjof Norheim (UiB).

Professor Hoffman will present two studies published in the British Medical Journal. In 2019. The first study describes the systematic process by which the authors collected, appraised, selected, and reported best-available national estimates of cigarette consumption for 71 countries from 1970 to 2015.

Overall the data concord with Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s previously published country-level data, but this study’s new dataset has the advantage of not smoothing year-over-year discontinuities that are necessary for robust quasi-experimental impact evaluations.

The second study uses these data to measure the impact of the FCTC using two quasi-experimental designs. Overall the authors find no significant change in the rate at which global cigarette consumption has been decreasing following the FCTC’s adoption in 2003; however, stratified analysis reveals significant reductions in cigarette consumption among high-income and European countries, and significant increases among low- and middle-income and Asian countries. This is the first ever quantitative evaluation of the global impact of the FCTC.

Steven J. Hoffmann
is the Director of the Global Strategy Lab, a Professor of Global Health, Law and Political Science at York University, and the Scientific Director at CIHR Institute of Population and Public Health.

Ole Frithjof Norheim
is Director of Bergen Center for Ethics and Priority Setting, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen, and Chair of the Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board.

The event is free and open for all!

Coffee, tea and croissants will be served. Welcome!

Event on LawTransform webpage

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