 Margaretha
Haglund, President
|
August
2003 |
Here is a short report from the International Network of Women Against Tobacco (INWAT) activities during the 12th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) in Helsinki. INWAT had many activities including five workshops, a press briefing, an information exhibit and a Members Meeting.
Overall, I dare to say that INWAT managed to promote itself quite well but, not in terms influencing the selection of women speakers and chairs during plenary and main sessions. Unfortunately, I have to report a setback from the 50% female participation reached in Beijing 1997, maintained at Chicago 2000 (thanks to the great efforts by Judith Mackay) to only approximately 35 % in Helsinki 2003. The lowest prevalence of female speakers was during the main sessions – a mere 22 %-33% per day according to my estimates.
My recommendation for the next WCTOH is that organisers make it clear to those arranging sessions to ensure every session have equal representation of women and men from equal numbers of developed and developing countries. I have not made any estimates regarding the paper sessions and workshops as I dare to say that they are perceived as having a lower “status” but nevertheless often have better female and developing nation representation!
Back to the successes: the five INWAT workshops attracted on average 50 delegates – far better than originally expected. More importantly, workshop participants expressed much appreciation about the excellent programs, thanks to the workshop presenters; Trudy Prins, Amanda Amos, Martina Poetske-Langer, Patti White and Nicola Christofides. The workshop presentations will be available on the INWAT website to ensure access to the information for members who did not attend the WCTOH. [The PowerPoint presentaitons are available as pdf files. Click to view.]
Although a little hidden, the INWAT Exhibit attracted a lot of visitors. More importantly, 72 additional members joined our Network.
Almost 70 INWAT members attended the Members Meeting which always coincides with the World Conference. At this meeting, the newly elected Board Members and Regional Representatives were announced.
| Board Members 2003 -2006 | |
| Margaretha
Haglund Head of Tobacco Control Programme National Institute of Public Health - Sweden |
President |
| Lorraine
Greaves Executive Director BC Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health – Canada |
Vice President |
| Deborah
McLellan Assistant Director Dana Farber Cancer Institute – USA |
Past President |
|
Gabriela Regueira Psychologist– Argentina |
Secretary |
| Trudy
Prins Director Netherlands Association for Community Health Sercices– The Netherlands |
Treasurer |
| Regional
Representatives 2003 - 2006 |
|
| Nicola
Christofides Senior Researcher Women’s Health Project – South Africa |
Africa |
| Jane
Martin |
Asia Pacific |
| Patti
White Policy Advisor National Institute for Clinical Excellence– United Kingdom |
Europe |
| Beatriz
Champagne Executive Director InterAmerican Heart Foundation - USA |
South America |
| Victoria
Almquist |
North America |
| Mira
Aghi Behavioural Scientist - India |
South-East Asia |
| INWAT Global Office |
Finally, our press briefing which focused on the rise of women smoking rates in developing countries attracted a lot of media interest. In fact, INWAT was featured on the back page of the Wednesday issue of the WCTOH Newsletter. We thank the Finnish Organisers for this recognition. The press release can be viewed here.
Actually, it was like nice music for us to note the reports released at the Conference from International Union Against Cancer (UICC), American Cancer Society (ACS) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on women and girls smoking. INWAT welcomes all of you to the barricades to combat the tobacco epidemic among women.
There is a Swedish saying
that states setbacks make a movement stronger so let’s keep up the good
spirit for 13th WCTOH in Washington 2006. Hopefully, INWAT will have some
influence on the Conference perhaps as part of the International Steering
Committee to which to date have never been invited.
Greetings from sunny Sweden
Margaretha Haglund
President of INWAT
© 1998-2007
