Tobacco control capacity refers to a nation’s ability to achieve individual, institutional, and societal goals for reducing tobacco consumption. Many countries lack the capacity to counter the tobacco industry’s incursions or to fully implement the articles of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Building national capacity for tobacco control entails leadership development, policy advocacy, investment in surveillance infrastructure, and consistent enforcement of tobacco control laws.

Fostering strong and effective non-governmental organizations and institutions is crucial to national capacity building. Organizations can empower citizens with information, skills, and resources to control tobacco and promote public health.

The World Health Organization, Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Framework Convention Alliance, and GLOBALink have made enormous contributions to building national tobacco control capacity. As of July 2008, the Bloomberg Philanthropies have funded 73 projects in 31 countries. Philanthropists Michael Bloomberg and Bill and Melinda Gates’s commitment (to date) of $500 million over seven years (2006–2013) more than triples the available resources to control tobacco in low- and middle-resource countries.

Financial resources help to level the playing field against multibillion-dollar tobacco companies, but even at low resource levels, each nation, institution, and individual has the capacity to adopt policies and practices that reduce and eliminate the scourge of tobacco.

A Selection of Organizations Funding Global Tobacco Control

• American Cancer Society
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Bloomberg Philanthropies
• Cancer Council Australia
• Cancer Research UK
• Framework Convention Alliance
• French Cancer League
• Global Tobacco Research Network
• International Union for Health Promotion and Education
• Norwegian Cancer Society
• Open Society Institute
• Program for Appropriate Technology in
• Health (PATH Canada)
• Romania Tobacco Control
• Swedish International Development Agency
• World Health Organization Tobacco Free
• Initiative (WHO TFI)
• World Lung Foundation

Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies
Protect people from tobacco smoke
Offer help to quit tobacco use
Warn about the dangers of tobacco
Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
Raise taxes on tobacco

Building on the first-ever global public health treaty - the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008 issued a comprehensive country-level report on the global tobacco epidemic. This report provides data from 179 countries covering 99% of the world’s population and sets baselines for implementation and enforcement of the six evidence-based and cost-effective policies of the WHO MPOWER strategy. Currently only 5% of the world’s population is fully protected by any one of the MPOWER interventions and no country implements and enforces all of them. By taking action to implement MPOWER, the leaders of governments and civil society can create the necessary environment to protect children from tobacco, help people quit tobacco use and save millions of lives a year.

The final version of the online Tobacco Atlas will have information on MPOWER steps related to the issues portrayed on each map.