PURPOSE:The annual World No Tobacco Day campaign is an opportunity to raise awareness on the harmful and deadly effects of tobacco use. The Member States of the World Health Organization created World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes. In 1987, the World Health Assembly passed Resolution WHA40.38, calling for 7 April 1988 to be a "a world no-smoking day." In 1988, Resolution WHA42.19 was passed, calling for the celebration of World No Tobacco Day, every year on 31 May. Make your pledge and Commit to Quit this World No Tobacco Day.

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 hashtags:# #WorldNoTobaccoDay; #31May; #TobaccoControl, #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. 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.

PODCASTS: The WHO today announces the 2023 global campaign. asking United Nations Agencies to work together to address SDG Targets 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 (improve food security and nutrition), SDG Target 3a (implementation of WHO FCTC), SDG Target 13 (combat climate change) and SDG Target 17 (strengthen partnership for sustainable development). This can be achieved by establishing enabling crop production and marketing ecosystems to support farmers to shift from tobacco to alternative crops. The key measure of campaign success would be the number of governments that pledge to end subsidies on tobacco growing. Listen to the audio-podcasts!

CAMPAIGN MATERIALS: The “GROW FOOD, NOT TOBACCO” campaign will help generate awareness amongst farmers to understand the negative health, environmental, social and economic effects associated with tobacco growing, to prevent tobacco consumption, the WHO recommends that countries fully ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, including advertising CSR programmes, in accordance with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Get the communication materials!