World No-Tobacco Day 2023, May 31th.

 FORUM: “GROW FOOD NOT TOBACCO’’ World No-Tobacco Day 2023. A record 349 million people across 79 countries are facing acute food insecurity, many are in low and middle-income countries, including over 30 countries on the African continent. Many of these countries use large areas of fertile land to grow tobacco rather than healthy food. Tobacco growing countries often face a negative economic impact due to the adverse health, environmental and social impacts of growing tobacco. In many cases, foreign exchange earned from tobacco exports is used to import food. Growing tobacco causes ill health among farmers and farm workers and irreversible environmental loss of precious resources such as water sources, forests, plants and animal species. Tobacco growing harms our health, the health of farmers and the planet’s health. The tobacco industry interferes with attempts to substitute tobacco growing, contributing to the global food crisis. Learn about the Top tobacco growing economies by WHO region, by hectare and follow the conversation with the hahstags: #WorldNoTobaccoDay; #31May; #GrowfoodNoTobacco.

EVENTS: The World No-Tobacco Day 2023 will be observed during a plenary session at WHO Headquaters in Geneva, Switzerland on May 31st. The WHO encourages governments and policy makers to end tobacco growing subsidies and use the savings to support farmers to switch to more sustainable crops that improve food security and nutrition.

All along 2023, we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), the global public health treaty that serves as the world’s front-line defence against the tobacco epidemic. Adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2003, it became one of the most rapidly embraced treaties in United Nations history – now with 182 Parties, representing more than 90% of the world’s population. The Convention was the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO), and in 2018 its first protocol – the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products – was adopted, further strengthening tobacco control.