Tobacco Control Capacity Building Workshop organized

A Tobacco Control Capacity Building Training Workshop was organized from 15 - 19 March 2009 at the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHBSPH) and WHO-BAN, with support of the Bangladesh Ministry of Health (MOH&FW). The objectives of the training were:

      ·    To train and bring together key government officials from various ministries in the core     

    competencies of tobacco control, including methods for monitoring and surveillance of the problem

    and best practices in tobacco control;

      ·     To highlight the current status of the tobacco problem and tobacco control policies in Bangladesh, gaps and weaknesses in the laws, and approaches for strengthening these gaps;

     ·     To develop a long-term relationship with different ministries and institutions to help build capacity to develop and conduct tobacco control training programmes for a wider audience.

Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Mr Shaikh Altaf Ali inaugurated the workshop. Acting WHO WR, Dr Andrew Trevett,  and Co-director, Institute of Global Tobacco Control, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr Frances Stillman, also spoke on the occasion. Twenty officers from various ministries and government institutions received training in this 5 day long workshop which was an interactive one. Faculties from JHBSPH, SEARO, Mahidol University – Thailand, WHO- BAN and tobacco control activists of Bangladesh facilitated the workshop.  On the closing ceremony Dr Benjamin Apelberg from JHBSPH, Mr Md Rezaul Hasan, Commissioner, Customs, Excise and VAT Unit of NBR, Dr Khalilur Rahman, Coordinator, Tobacco Control, SEARO and Dr M Mostafa Zaman, NPO (NCD), WHO-BAN expressed their satisfaction about successful completion of the workshop. Deputy Secretary (WHO), MOH&FW Ms Nurjahan Begum gave away the certificates among participants, and presented the concluding wrap-up remarks on the usefulness of the workshop.