Malawi ratifies WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Malawi, Africa's largest tobacco-producing country, has just ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). It was one of the last countries in the world not to have ratified it.

August 18, 2023 will remain a historic date for Malawi. It marks the country's ratification of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and its announced commitment to tobacco control. Malawi thus joins the 183 parties, i.e. 182 countries as well as the European Union, to have ratified the FCTC. This ratification was notably welcomed by Léonce Dieudonné SESSOU, Executive Secretary of the Alliance for Tobacco Control in Africa (ACTA)[1].

FCTC, an opportunity for Malawi

The first international health treaty, the CCLAT brings together a body of measures to reduce – and ultimately eliminate – tobacco use. These measures include both actions to reduce demand for tobacco (taxation, advertising, packaging/labelling, product composition, public awareness) and others aimed at reducing supply (prohibition of sales to and by minors, combating illicit trade, economically viable alternative activities, holding industry accountable). The FCTC also contains provisions on environmental protection and incentives for scientific and technical cooperation. The WHO 2021 report on tobacco control, which is regularly updated, measures the progress made through the implementation of this treaty[2].

The disastrous toll of tobacco growing

The case of Malawi is particularly emblematic with regard to the FCTC. For several decades, this country has been heavily involved in tobacco cultivation, to the point that it has become its main source of foreign currency and exported products. However, the expected revenues for the country are not up to expectations and tobacco cultivation is proving to be harmful to the health of tobacco workers ("tobacco disease"). green tobacco ") and harmful to the environment, while occupying a significant portion of agricultural land which cannot therefore be devoted to food or more lucrative crops.

There tobacco culture is indeed very land and water intensive, and requires large quantities of chemical inputs (fertilizers, etc.) and wood (treatment of tobacco plants with smoke). It is also a source of deforestation, in order to make land available. It is in this spirit that the World Health Organization (WHO) has made tobacco growing the theme of World No Tobacco Day in 2023, under the title: "Grow food, not tobacco". The aim was specifically to encourage tobacco-producing countries to turn away from this crop and move towards food crops or at least more profitable ones.

Malawi, symbol of tobacco growing impasse

Economically, Malawi has encountered an increasingly problematic situation. Smallholder farmers are in fact loaned seeds, agricultural equipment, as well as subsistence foods (mainly maize) each year in order to produce their harvest. However, the resale of these does not allow the repayment of the sums loaned and the farmers find themselves in debt at the beginning of the following year. This vicious circle forces smallholders to employ their families, and in particular their children, in order to try to balance their situation. This is why tobacco growing is particularly singled out for the child labor it induces.

Malawi's involvement in tobacco growing makes the country highly vulnerable to the demands of the tobacco industry. In particular, the industry can slow down or block the implementation of measures to protect the population from tobacco products (smoke-free areas, taxation, health warnings, etc.). By announcing on April 21, 2021, gradually give up Tobacco cultivation, Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera marked a turning point in his country's history. Ratifying the FCTC would now be another decisive step for Malawi, that of devoting itself to protecting the population against smoking. However, a number of health stakeholders are questioning the country's late ratification of the treaty and point to a possible maneuver by the tobacco industry to infiltrate or even indirectly "undermine" the treaty's implementation process. The positions defended by the country at the next session of the Conference of the Parties to the treaty in Panama in November will provide some answers.

For more information on the situation in Malawi, see our decryption.

Keywords: Malawi, tobacco cultivation, FCTC, tobacco control, ATCA.

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[1] Malawi should maintain its political will and not delay the adoption of legislation in line with the WHO FCTC, ATCA, published September 4, 2023, accessed September 5, 2023.

[2] 2021 Global Progress Report on Implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, WHO, published November 1, 2021, accessed September 5, 2023.