The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Secretariat (F.C.T.C.) working in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (U.N.D.P.) and the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) undertook the presentation of the report of the tobacco investment case report for the Samoan government.

Team Leader Development Assistance, Andrew Black of the WHO FCTC (the only healthy treaty that is entirely focused on ending the tobacco epidemic around the world) in Geneva told Samoa Observer in an interview that tobacco is hugely harmful to health as it is responsible for 7 million deaths every year around the world.

Andrew said that it has a profound impact on health in Samoa as the problem is just not limited to health impacts, although they are huge.

“It’s also a significant cause of environmental problems and a major barrier of economic development as well, so tobacco is a major barrier to sustainable development,” he said.

From the United Nations (U.N.) they wanted to help Samoa understand of the economic burden of tobacco.

“The health burden is becoming more and more the norm, but the economic burden of tobacco still remains somewhat understood,” he said.

“We wanted to provide more information to Samoa’s government in order to support policy making for tobacco into the future,” he added.

The idea of investment case is to really look comprehensively at the economic burden that tobacco has on all aspects of the economy.

Andrew said that the report will be handed over to the government this week for its promotion to increase awareness of the wider problems that tobacco causes.

Policy Specialist HIV, Health and Inclusive Development, Kazuyuki Uji of the UNDP said that tobacco is really harming Samoa’s businesses and the economy year after year.

“So this is one of the key findings of the investment case that tobacco is costing $47 million every year which is equivalent to 2.3% of its Gross Domestic Product (G.D.P.) 2017,” he said.

Another key finding is that Samoa has a range of proven cost effective tobacco control measures to medicate those social health and economic impacts.

“We found that a package of control interventions will yield a very 1000% high return on investment through the banning, promotion, sponsorship and also the advertisement. As well as raising tobacco taxes were found to be the true most cost effective tobacco control measure among three key recommendations, and this is to the WHO’s recommended level of 75% of the retail price,” he said.

Andrew added on saying that it’s good for public health as it reduces demand for tobacco and therefore reduces consumption of tobacco but at the same time is a source of new revenues that can be invested for the government.

The other two recommendations the government of Samoa could give consideration to be able to continue its good work on tobacco control also included plain packages to make it seem less attractive for the youth as well as raising the minimum age of sale of tobacco products.

“More than 50 countries applied to be a part of FCTC 2030 project but only 15 were selected and Samoa was among them as the only country in the Pacific who is currently receiving assistance under the project because Samoa was demonstrating good work already on tobacco control and political will to protect Samoans from tobacco,” he said.

Kazuyuki concluded by saying that the government of Samoa is very committed to pursuing and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (S.D.G.s). Tobacco control is an SDG accelerator because it can hit and address so many goals at the same time simultaneously with proven effective measures.