Huffington Post: A hazard to global development
Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, head of secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC)

“…On May 30 in Geneva, the secretariat of the WHO [Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)] jointly launched a new paper with the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), gathering together evidence to show that tobacco must be at the heart of the [Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)]. If there’s a single key point to emerge from this document, it’s that by accelerating the implementation of the WHO FCTC, the global tobacco control treaty, we can help meet the SDGs on schedule by 2030 and so improve tens of millions of lives. The report — The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: an accelerator for sustainable development — examines how tobacco control implementation can generate a benign domino effect, whereby positive policies for one SDG can assist another. As governments get down to the detail of the SDGs, the paper aims to foster the unified, cross-government approach that ensures public policy coherence. … Without [tobacco], everyone can enjoy a better future” (5/30).