The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: The project “Informational support of Georgian government about FCTC” attempted to support strengthening of potential in Georgian government for the FCTC ratification and implementation, for what were planned: to describe and analyze level of information and attitudes among employees of Georgian Ministries and Members of Parliament regarding the FCTC, and inform representatives of Georgian government about the FCTC. Georgia signed the FCTC on February 2004, process of ratification is going and next step is implementation.

Methods: A semi-structured interview protocol that included questions regarding knowledge and attitudes towards the principles of the FCTC and tobacco control was used. 24% of the Parliament members and 106 employees of the 6 Ministries were interviewed. Data analysis conducted by analyzing re-occurring themes, relationships, and other statements. For informational support was planned preparation and distribution of the informational packages among the representatives of Georgian government.

Results: Majority of the respondents (82.3%) support ratification and implementation of the FCTC. Parliament members are more supportive then executive power representatives (definitive support - 84.5% and 40.6%, respectively). Both branches of the government were not fully acquainted with the FCTC. Tobacco industry lobbying and lack of information were identified as the most significant barriers of ratification and implementation of the FCTC. According to the results of the study, prepared and distributed informational packages among representatives of Ministries and Parliament. In addition, results of the study distributed among organizations advocating tobacco control and were found useful during the FCTC ratification procedures.