¡@¡@The
control and prevention of tobacco has become a major heath topic
worldwide. Even though Taiwan is not able to participate in the
World Health Organization (WHO) due to various political factors,
we should not consider ourselves to be the outsider of the international
health system. Instead, we should be even more proactive in affecting
the international partnership, as well as participating in international
health affairs by practical means.
To
share information and experience with the international
community through the meeting participation |
¡@¡@In order
to promote international partnership of Taiwan's tobacco control
and prevention, the Taiwan International Medical Alliance has
made a blueprint:
(1) |
Be
An Active Participant in all International Health Affairs |
| |
¡@¡@We
could become the active participant of the Global Youth
Tobacco Survey, or GYTS, which is a survey made by the WHO
and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention,
or CDC. We could utilize the research methods and execution
tools as recommended by the WHO, and invite the people responsible
for this plan in the Asia region to share their experience.
In addition, because the website of this plan erroneously
listed Taiwan as one of China's provinces, it gave misleading
information concerning Taiwan's tobacco control and prevention
policy. Therefore, we should proactively take part in this
survey so we could present the correct information to other
participating nations.
|
(2) |
Use
Debate Topics to Manage International Non-Government Organization
(NGO) Activities |
|
¡@¡@The
domestic anti-tobacco groups should vigorously apply to
become a member of the Framework Convention Alliance, or
FCA, in order to exchange important ideas with other anti-tobacco
groups internationally. They could also establish a bridge
with other government agencies through the FCA meetings
so Taiwan does not become isolated in the fight for tobacco
control and prevention.
|
(3) |
Initiate
Regional Research Projects |
|
¡@¡@Develop
research projects with other Asian countries, such as regular
meetings to share the information and experience about tobacco
consumer tax, and provide information about the tobacco
control and prevention activities in Taiwan.
|
(4) |
Establish
Chinese and English Data Bank |
| |
¡@¡@Taiwan
should translate all pertinent information about tobacco
control and prevention into foreign languages, so we could
share this information with the international community
through the website and meeting participation.
|
(5) |
Nourish
International Health Partnership Experts |
|
¡@¡@On
the tobacco control and prevention front, we could co-sponsor
tobacco control and prevention training of trainers (TOT)
with international NGO's and reputable universities. We
could also draw on the experience of the international NGO's
in regards to regional project planning and management abilities
to outline the training courses for the international partnership
trainees.
|
(6) |
Use
Our Experience to Participate in Asian Regional International
Health Collaboration Topics |
| |
¡@¡@When
working with developing nations like Cambodia and Vietnam,
in addition to working closely with our partners, we are hoping
that more and more experts from the academia and industry
could participate, so that a multi-faceted international research
project could take shape, and a more accurate data bank could
be established. |
¡@
To
use Debate Topics to Manage International Non-Government
Organization (NGO) Activities |
¡@¡@When Taiwan
strengthens the interactions with other international organizations
and NGO's, it could go from playing a passive role to an active
role, reducing the difficulty and information isolation of Taiwan's
participating in international health events. For example, the
WHO conducts survey into the adolescent's smoking behavior for
all the member nations. In addition to providing funding, it also
systemizes the entire research methods, information, statistics,
and interpretation. So far more than 130 nations have either completed
or are in the process of implementing this research plan. Our
suggestion is for the WHO to provide technical assistance to Taiwan
so that we may initiate similar research plan internally. We are
also hoping to have the proper channel to share our research results
with other nations. |
