Gaborone, Botswana - 18-22 March 2019: The Ministry of Health and Wellness convened tobacco control stakeholders in Gaborone to develop a first ever national multi-sectoral tobacco control strategy. The week long workshop brought together stakeholders from both within and outside of government. Some of the key stakeholders included Ministries of trade, local government, basic education, youth and culture, the police, Botswana Unified Revenue Services and NGOs such as Anti-tobacco network, Botswana Substance Abuse Network (BOSAsnet), Humana People to People and Skygirls. They are all critical to successful and effective tobacco control.

The strategy promotes a multi-sectoral approach to tobacco control and spells out operational, coordination, monitoring and collaboration mechanisms. It will contribute to the broader national multi-sectoral prevention and control of NCDs. The workshop was officially opened by the Community Health Services Advisor/Director in the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the keynote address was delivered by the WCO Tobacco Focal person on behalf of the WHO Representative Dr Martins Ovberedjo. WHO provided both funding and technical support for the workshop.

It is expected that the strategy will be approved and disseminated by the end of the third quarter of the year when the new FCTC compliant Tobacco Control Bill shall hopefully have been passed by parliament.