Plan de Acción Intersectorial para el Control de la Venta Ilícita de Productos de Tabaco, Monitoreo al Cumplimiento de Espacios 100% Libres de Humo de Tabaco y Advertencias Sanitarias

Objectives

Ecuador’s tobacco-control framework aims to protect the right to health, healthy environments and life by reducing tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke, strengthening enforcement of tobacco-control rules, and contributing to Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 on reducing premature mortality from non-communicable diseases by 2030.[1][2]It is founded on the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, ratified by Ecuador in 2006, the 2011 Organic Law for the Regulation and Control of Tobacco and its 2012 regulations, and the 2015 ratification of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products.[1][2]

• Eliminate illicit trade by addressing tobacco smuggling, illicit manufacture and counterfeiting, strengthening supply-chain control, and improving enforcement against unlawful sales.[1][3][4]
• Protect people from tobacco smoke in workplaces, public transport, enclosed public places, health and education facilities, public-access premises and enclosed sports venues, while promoting voluntary 100% smoke-free declarations by institutions.[5][2]
• Improve compliance with package-labelling rules, including annually rotating health warnings covering 60% of the main package faces and health information covering 70% of one lateral face, and enforce the prohibition on packages containing fewer than 10 units or 10 grams.[2]
• Increase public awareness of the harms and risks of tobacco use, applicable tobacco-control rules and institutional enforcement, with integrated prevention messaging for the general population and priority groups such as students, higher-education communities and sports organisations.[4][6][7]
• Establish a population-perception baseline, conduct periodic compliance monitoring, develop inter-institutional information exchange, train focal points and involve municipalities in tobacco-control activities.[8][9]

The framework links tobacco control to prevention of non-communicable diseases and recognises the potential public-health and fiscal benefits of reducing illicit trade, including lower premature tobacco-related mortality and increased government tax revenue.[1][10]Available evidence underscores the need for smoke-free enforcement: in the 2016 Global Youth Tobacco Survey, 31.5% of students aged 13 to 15 reported exposure to tobacco smoke in enclosed public places and 32.4% reported exposure in any open public place.[10]Health warnings are presented as a cost-effective measure; a 2015 survey found that 69.16% of surveyed non-smokers considered warnings a deterrent to starting smoking, while 61.12% of surveyed smokers reported reducing consumption because of them.[4]

Implementation

Implementation combines legal enforcement, intersectoral coordination, public communication, education and routine compliance operations.[4][8][9]Governance is centred on the reactivated Interinstitutional Committee for Tobacco Control and involves the Ministry of Public Health, the Agency for Regulation, Control and Health Surveillance, the Internal Revenue Service, the National Customs Service of Ecuador, the Ministry of the Interior, decentralised autonomous governments, the Ministry of Education and other participating bodies.[1][8]Responsibilities span health regulation, environmental control, tax administration, customs control, public security, education and local government action.[2][10]

• Control the tobacco supply chain through licensing, record-keeping, security and preventive measures, tracking and tracing, and controls concerning free-trade zones and duty-free sales.[3]
• Strengthen enforcement through investigations, sanctions, confiscation procedures and environmentally safe destruction of illicit tobacco products, alongside stronger national and subnational fiscal-administration systems and international collaboration.[3][10]
• Conduct complementary periodic operations to assess compliance with rules on illicit tobacco sales, smoke-free spaces and packaging health warnings.[8][9]
• Coordinate inter-institutional meetings to prepare monitoring schedules, assess and design an information-sharing platform, and organise sensitisation and information workshops for committee focal points.[9]
• Engage the Association of Ecuadorian Municipalities and pursue a municipal ordinance to support local tobacco-control operations.[8][9]
• Deliver awareness and prevention workshops in schools, higher-education institutions and sports settings, replicate activities through sport, physical education and recreation sectors, and develop audiovisual messaging using sporting figures.[6][7]
• Use mass media, social media, institutional information channels and email distribution to reach the public, establishment owners and managers subject to controls, and members of the inter-institutional illicit-trade committee.[4]
• Support institutional focal points to pursue 100% smoke-free declarations and communicate the experience of institutions that have already obtained this status.[7]

Monitoring is intended to include control of cross-border tobacco trade and use of package information to identify product origin, diversion points, destination and legal authorisation.[3]A practical tracking-and-tracing regime is to be examined, and documentation is to be maintained on product movements and legal status.[3]Reporting under the illicit-trade protocol is linked to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control reporting system.[3]

Population perceptions are to be measured through questions incorporated into national surveys conducted by the National Statistics and Census Institute and through a social-media survey.[11]The National Institute of Public Health Research is assigned to analyse the resulting data jointly with the statistics institute and the Ministry of Public Health.[11]The proposed information platform is intended to enable information exchange and coordinated actions among tobacco-control institutions.[9]The material does not specify a completed platform, quantified performance indicators, reporting timetable, independent evaluation framework or detailed sanctions arrangement.[1][9]

Activities are scheduled principally for the third quarter of 2018, with some workshop and dissemination activity intended to continue annually or permanently.[11][6][7]Required resources are generally identified as participating institutions’ own technical, human and audiovisual resources, with state financing indicated for selected activities including the population-perception baseline, periodic monitoring, municipal engagement, information-platform development and smoke-free declaration processes.[11][9][6][7]No monetary budget, allocation, funding gap, unit cost or resource-mobilisation target is specified.[11][9]

Monitoring & Evaluation

Monitoring and accountability combine regulatory compliance checks, population-perception measurement, tobacco-trade surveillance and inter-institutional coordination. The framework seeks to monitor illicit tobacco sales, 100% smoke-free environments and tobacco-package health warnings through periodic complementary operations by competent public bodies.[8][9]It also envisages monitoring cross-border trade and using package information to establish product origin, diversion points, destination and legal authorisation.[3]

• Establish a baseline of public perceptions through questions incorporated into national surveys led by the National Statistics and Census Institute and through a social-media survey.[11]
• Analyse baseline and survey data jointly through the National Institute of Public Health Research, the National Statistics and Census Institute and the Ministry of Public Health.[11]
• Schedule periodic monitoring operations through inter-institutional meetings, covering compliance with restrictions on illicit sales, smoke-free spaces and health warnings.[8][9]
• Develop a practical tracking-and-tracing regime, retain records of tobacco-product movements and legal status, and link reporting under the illicit-trade protocol to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control reporting system.[3]
• Exchange information and coordinate planned actions through a proposed inter-institutional information platform.[9]
• Assign implementation accountability across the Interinstitutional Committee for Tobacco Control, including the Ministry of Public Health, the Agency for Regulation, Control and Health Surveillance, the Internal Revenue Service, the National Customs Service of Ecuador, the Ministry of the Interior, decentralised autonomous governments, the Ministry of Education and other participating bodies.[8]
• Allocate responsibility for initiating smoke-free institutional declarations to committee focal points and for coordinating related activities to participating institutions.[7]

Available evidence includes the 2016 Global Youth Tobacco Survey, which found that 31.5% of students aged 13 to 15 had been exposed to tobacco smoke in enclosed public places and 32.4% in any open public place.[10]A 2015 survey on perceptions of health warnings found that 69.16% of surveyed non-smokers said warnings discouraged smoking initiation, while 61.12% of surveyed smokers said warnings had reduced their tobacco consumption.[4]

The extracts identify an intention to monitor compliance with 100% smoke-free spaces and to increase public awareness of institutional enforcement.[1][4]However, they do not specify a completed information platform, a comprehensive quantitative indicator framework, reporting frequency, formal reporting requirements, independent evaluation arrangements, evaluation methodology or sanctions linked to monitoring findings.[8][9][6][7]

Costing & Financing

Implementation is expected to draw primarily on state financing and resources contributed by participating institutions, rather than on a stated dedicated tobacco-control budget.[11][9]Awareness and prevention activities are to use institutions’ own technical, human and audiovisual resources, while the process for declaring committee institutions 100% smoke-free is identified as state-funded and supported by each institution’s own resources.[6][7]

• Provide institutional resources and state financing for population-perception baseline and survey activities scheduled for the third quarter of 2018.[11]
• Provide institutional resources and state financing for periodic tobacco-control monitoring operations, municipal engagement and development of an inter-institutional information-sharing platform, scheduled for the third quarter of 2018.[9]
• Use participating institutions’ own technical, human and audiovisual inputs for workshops and dissemination activities in education and sports settings.[6][7]
• Recognise health warnings as a cost-effective tobacco-control measure and identify reduced illicit trade as potentially increasing government tax revenue while reducing premature tobacco-related deaths.[10][4]

No monetary budget, allocations, unit costs, funding gap, resource-mobilisation target, financing plan, monetary estimate of tax revenue, or economic assumptions are specified in the supplied extracts.[1][3][11][9][6][7]