The UCT Knowledge Hub Supportsthe McCabe Centre’s annual (September 2016)
The WHO FCTC Knowledge hub on Legal Challenges is based at the McCabe Centre in Melbourne, Australia. InSeptember 2016 it hosted its bi-annual Intensive Legal Training Programme, designed to build capacity in the use of law to prevent and control cancer and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) particularly in the context of developing coherence between health, trade and investment laws, policies and sectors.Other than forming part of its regular training, this course served as the first collaboration between the Melbourne-based knowledge hub and the WHO FCTC Knowledge hub on Taxation, based at the University of Cape Town.
One member of the UCT Knowledge Hub, Tom Harris, traveled to Melbourne, Australia, on October 9-15, 2016 to run a workshop on the economics of tobacco control – focusing on tobacco taxation – that would form part of the third week of the McCabe Centre’s training programme.
Training course attendeeshailed from developing countries across the world: from Kenya and Nigeria, to Indonesia and Thailand, to Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. They were an animated and enthusiastic group, and seemed excited by the prospect of expanding their knowledge within the realm of the Economics of Tobacco Control.
Tom first provided trainees with a solid foundation on the Economics of Tobacco Control: starting with an introduction to the economic principles of supply and demand, and how these principles could be applied to the realm of tobacco control. He then introduced and explored the concept of price elasticity, or price sensitivity. This prompted many questions and seemed to provoke much interest. He also provided an interactive presentation on tobacco excise taxation and excise tax system – which applied many of the economic principles the trainees had learned over the course of the workshop.
As part of the workshop, Tom also offered many practical examples of both good and bad tobacco excise tax systems. Each example was discussed amongst the group, and was followed by a final question and answers session. Trainees grappled with the economic principles that were conveyed, and seemed to emerge at the end of the workshop with a newset of skills that could be applied in their work in tobacco control.
Following the workshop, Tom was approached by many trainees with ideas about how they could apply what they had learned to the excise tax systems within their own countries. He thus spent some additional time brainstorming with individual trainees around such ideas.Time was also spent networking with the trainees, and discussing future opportunities for collaboration.
Over the duration of this collaboration with the Knowledge hub in Melbourne, Tom gained greatperspective on how the team at the McCabe Centre interacted with the trainees, what areas the trainees found most interesting, and how the trainees responded to the various elements of the training.Much time was also given to discussing strategies for the future development of the WHO FCTC Knowledge hubs, and how further collaborations could be fosteredbetween the McCabe Centre and our Knowledge hub in Cape Town.