The observed tactics and arguments presented by the FDI in opposition to sugar taxation have striking similarities with those previously used by the tobacco industry. An improved understanding of the stakeholders' mandate and resources and their most important tactics will strengthen the position of public health experts when debating sugar taxation with the FDI, which may contribute to improving population health.

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INTRODUCTION The WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) Secretariat has identified issues with Article 13 (Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship) Party policy progress reporting, whilst some researchers remain skeptical of the completeness and accuracy of the data collected as part of the required reporting questionnaire. Gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges encountered when completing these questionnaires could provide insights to improve WHO FCTC progress reporting. METHODS Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted between January and June 2021, with nine national tobacco control focal point (NFP) individuals (designates who report on WHO FCTC implementation on the Party's behalf) from low-and middle-income countries. The study analysis used a thematic framework approach involving data familiarization, thematic framework construction, indexing and refining, mapping and interpretation of the results. RESULTS The analysis generated four themes: 1) use of different resources, 2) presence of compounding complexities, 3) use of supporting mechanisms employed for tackling the challenges, and 4) recommendations for refinements within the questionnaire and for those completing it. CONCLUSIONS The WHO FCTC reporting questionnaire needs improvements that could be piloted and discussed between the Convention Secretariat and the Parties prior to wide scale implementation.

Background: Governments have introduced legislative activities, such as restricting marketing to children of foods high in fat, sugar and/or salt, to curb the childhood obesity burden. In the European Region, the World Health Organization (WHO/Europe) has facilitated them with the development of the Nutrient Profile Model (WHO/Europe-NPM). Cyprus is the country with the highest childhood obesity rates in the Region.  Nonetheless, it does not currently restrict marketing to children. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the composition of ready-to-eat-cereals (RTECs), a fat, sugar and/or salt dense food product category on the Cypriot market and to examine whether the marketing of these products to children should be permitted according to the WHO/Europe-NPM. Methods: Two hundred RTEC samples from four national food retailers were collected from March to April 2018. The samples were assessed for their nutritional quality with the use of the WHO/Europe-NPM and statistical comparisons were performed between child-targeted and non-child-targeted RTECs. Results: The average content of sugar and salt was significantly higher in “child-targeted” than in “non-child-targeted” RTECs. 87.3% of the “child-targeted” RTECs would not be permitted for marketing to children according to the WHO/Europe-NPM and 73.5% of the overall sample exceeded at least one of the WHO/Europe-NPM recommendations for fat, sugar and/or salt. Conclusions: In case of the implementation of any marketing restriction legislation domestically in the future, most of the RTECs currently sold in Cyprus would not be permitted to be marketed to children according to the WHO/Europe-NPM. Incorporating marketing restrictions in the health policy agenda and adopting the WHO/Europe-NPM may improve the childhood obesity rates in Cyprus.

ObjectivesThe aim of the study was to assess the Sudanese tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS) legislative environment and the challenges characterising it. We formulated three research questions: What is the TAPS policy context in Sudan? What circumstances led to the development of the current legislative text? Finally, what was the involvement of the different actors in these events?DesignWe conducted a qualitative analysis using the Health Policy Triangle model to frame the collection and extraction of publicly available information from academic literature search engines, news media databases or websites of national and international organisations, as published by February 2021. The thematic framework approach was employed to code and analyse the textual data and the generated themes were used to map connections across the data and to explore relationships among the generated subthemes and themes.SettingSudan.DataUsing a combination of the keywords “Sudan” and “tobacco advertising” (or “tobacco marketing” or “tobacco promotion”), we collected publicly available documents in the English language. We included 29 documents in the analysis.ResultsThree themes underpin the Sudanese legislative environment on TAPS: (1) limited and outdated TAPS data, (2) stakeholder involvement and tobacco industry interference and (3) TAPS legislation not aligned with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Secretariat recommendations.ConclusionsFindings from this qualitative analysis suggest that recommendations to move forward in Sudan should include the systematic and periodic collection of TAPS surveillance data, addressing any remaining legislative content loopholes and protecting policy-making from tobacco industry interference. In addition, best practices from other low-income and middle-income countries with good TAPS monitoring systems, such as Egypt, Bangladesh and Indonesia, or with protective provisions against tobacco industry interference, such as Thailand and the Philippines, could be considered for adaptation and implementation.