Ghana Should Adopt Code of conduct to Curb Tobacco Industry Influence

VAST Ghana has been urged to finalise and adopt a comprehensive Code of Conduct for public officials to regulate interactions with the tobacco industry and protect public health policies from commercial and other vested interests.

The call was made at a strategic stakeholder engagement on the development and institutionalisation of the Code of Conduct for Public Officials, organised by the Vision for Accelerated Sustainable Development Ghana (VAST Ghana) at the Sunlodge Hotel in Tesano, Accra.

The engagement brought together stakeholders from the public sector, regulatory institutions, civil society and tobacco-control advocacy groups to assess progress on the draft Code, examine challenges affecting its finalisation and discuss practical measures for its adoption and implementation.

Presenting key highlights of the draft Code, Madam Mavis Danso said the proposed framework is intended to provide public officials with clear guidance on how interactions with the tobacco industry should be handled, particularly in situations where such engagements may be necessary.

She said the Code should clearly establish what information must be disclosed, how potential conflicts of interest should be managed and the safeguards required when public institutions engage in partnerships or receive incentives, gifts, contributions or other forms of support.

According to her, establishing clear rules would help public officials distinguish legitimate regulatory interactions from engagements that could create opportunities for undue influence over public policy.

The Executive Director of VAST Ghana, Mr Labram Musah, said the development of the Code was only the beginning, stressing that its effectiveness would ultimately depend on ownership, institutionalisation, implementation, monitoring and accountability.

He said public officials needed clearly defined responsibilities, while institutions required practical mechanisms to ensure that the Code moved beyond a policy document to become part of everyday institutional practice.

Mr Musah said the stakeholder meeting therefore provided an opportunity to take stock of the progress made, identify legal, policy, institutional, technical and operational barriers and agree on practical steps towards the finalisation and adoption of the Code.

He further called for a coordinated pathway that would ensure the proposed framework was not left as a draft document but was translated into enforceable institutional practices capable of protecting the integrity of tobacco control policies.

The importance of protecting public health policy from tobacco industry influence was also highlighted by Dr. Mary Assunta, who spoke on the significance of the Code and the obligations of countries under Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).

She explained that Article 5.3 provides a framework for protecting tobacco control policies from the commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry.

Dr. Assunta noted that the objective was not necessarily to prevent every interaction between public officials and tobacco industry representatives, but to ensure that such interactions were conducted under clear and transparent rules.

“It’s not ‘don’t meet’ it’s ‘meet under clear rules’,” she said, stressing the importance of transparency and accountability in any engagement involving public officials and tobacco industry actors.

She also pointed to international practices where information about meetings and interactions between public officials and the tobacco industry is made publicly available, providing greater transparency in the policy-making process.

Speaking on tobacco industry interference, Mr Godfred Tweneboah, Research and Policy Manager at VAST Ghana, said the industry could employ different strategies to influence public policy and decision-making.

He said such influence could occur through lobbying, the presentation of industry-sponsored information and research, corporate social responsibility initiatives and other forms of engagement that could shape perceptions around tobacco regulation.

He stressed the need for strong institutional safeguards to ensure that commercial interests did not compromise the development and implementation of public health policies.

The discussion also focused on the role of monitoring and accountability after the Code is adopted. Stakeholders proposed measures including the establishment of a public registry for meetings and engagements between public officials and tobacco industry representatives, training of designated institutional focal persons and mechanisms to support reporting of possible breaches.

Director of the Tobacco and Substances of Abuse Directorate at the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Dr Martin Kusi, said the Code would provide practical effect to Ghana’s obligations under Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC.

He said the development process required broad stakeholder consultation and that implementation would also require civil society monitoring, transparent reporting and accountability to ensure compliance.

The economic implications of tobacco use also formed part of the discussion, with Mr. Christian Nii Ayi Welbeck, a Revenue Officer of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), who delivered remarks on behalf of the Assistant Commissioner, Strategy and Research Department, highlighting the financial burden tobacco related diseases place on the country.

He cited an estimated annual economic cost of about GH¢668 million associated with tobacco use, compared with approximately GH¢713.1 million in tobacco tax revenue in 2025, arguing that the figures demonstrated the need to place greater emphasis on prevention.

He maintained that reducing tobacco-related harm would require stronger preventive measures alongside appropriate taxation and regulatory interventions.

The stakeholder engagement comes against the background of Ghana’s existing tobacco control regulatory framework and its obligations under the WHO FCTC. Stakeholders said the proposed Code should complement existing regulations by providing public officials with practical guidance on conflicts of interest, transparency, disclosure and interactions with the tobacco industry.

Participants agreed that finalising and institutionalising the Code would require sustained collaboration among government institutions, regulators, civil society organisations and other relevant stakeholders. The central concern emerging from the engagement was that protecting tobacco control policies cannot depend solely on legislation or regulation; institutions must also have clear procedures, trained officials, transparent reporting systems and effective accountability mechanisms.

For Ghana, stakeholders said, the next stage is therefore to move the Code from consultation to finalisation and institutional adoption, ensuring that the principles of Article 5.3 are reflected in the conduct of public officials and the broader governance of tobacco control policy.