Another step forward for the Pacific Legislative Framework

Pacific Island Countries and Territories have some of the world’s highest rates of obesity, diabetes, smoking and other risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

In response, Public Health Division of the Pacific Community (SPC) has been driving an initiative to develop policies and legislative provisions for tackling the key risk factors, particularly tobacco use, harmful alcohol use, and dietary risks.

The result is the “Pacific Legislative Framework”.

Meeting on 22 March this year, Pacific Health Ministers endorsed the Pacific Legislative Framework, adding to its momentum as a public health tool and agent for change.

This remarkable document, now available in English and French, consists of three parts.

The framework begins by setting out policy for addressing a surprisingly wide range of risk factors, including core areas of tobacco control, core areas of liquor control, health promotion, protection for breastfeeding, regulation of marketing of unhealthy foods and drinks to children, reducing consumption of salt, sugar and trans-fat in the diet, and tax measures for tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food/sugar-sweetened drinks.

The “policy” element includes overall policy objectives and recommendations for each area, as well as priority areas for reform and a brief legislative plan.

The appendices to the Framework consist of draft legislative provisions covering each of the thematic areas/risk factors.

These provisions can be implemented as off-the-shelf legislation, or adapted by National Parliaments to national circumstances.

The Pacific Legislative Framework is an impressive effort – entirely driven by Pacific Island Countries and Territories themselves, in collaboration with the Pacific Community (SPC) and the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office.

The Framework is a logical extension in a chain of initiatives, driven by Pacific Island Countries and Territories, to address the burden of NCDs.

These include the foundational “healthy islands” vision embodied in the 1995 and 2005 Yanuca Declaration, together with the Pacific NCD Roadmap (2014), the Joint Forum Economic and Pacific Health Ministers’ Meeting (2014), the Pacific NCD Summit (2016), and the “Tobacco Free Pacific 2025” strategy.

In 2017, the Pacific Monitoring Alliance for NCD Action (Pacific MANA) was established.  Pacific MANA has developed a dashboard-style accountability tool to report on progress with policies and laws to address NCDs in Pacific Island Countries and Territories.

You can see the baseline report for 2018 here.

The MANA dashboard now functions as an accountability tool for action on NCDs in the Pacific. 

There is a long way to go, and gaps to be filled, including political commitment and actions to prevent conflicts of interest that undermine tobacco control policies in the Pacific.  There is also an urgent need for Pacific Island Countries and Territories to grow their capacity for enforcing public health laws.