CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO THE A/FCTC/COP/2/INF.DOC./2
WHO FRAMEWORK CONVENTION 19 April 2007
ON TOBACCO CONTROL Second session
Provisional agenda item 5.2
Matters identified in decisions taken by the Conference of the Parties that call for action in the period between its first and second sessions
Reporting and exchange of information (decision FCTC/COP1(14))
1. In accordance with decision FCTC/COP1(14) of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and Article 21 of the Convention, parties are required to fulfil reporting obligations. In that connection, two electronic tools have been designed. These tools comprise a Microsoft Word-based tool, which is currently available, and a web-based tool, which is in development.
2. The Word-based tool was distributed via compact disk in December 2006 to the 61 Parties due to report before the opening of the second session of the Conference of the Parties. The tool was also made available to all Parties for download on the interim secretariat web site. The web-based tool is scheduled for first-stage completion in time to be demonstrated to all Parties during the second session of the Conference of the Parties.
3. All Parties are encouraged to use the electronic tools in order to facilitate both the process of data entry at the Party level and data analysis once the reports are submitted.
THE MICROSOFT WORD-BASED TOOL
4. The Word-based tool fulfils the reporting instrument requirement, adopted by the Conference of the Parties at its first session, in an interactive, Microsoft Word format available in the six official languages of the Conference of the Parties. This format was chosen in order to ensure that most Parties would be able to access and use the instrument easily. The Word-based tool can be downloaded and saved to a disk or hard drive to allow for completion over a period of time. The tool is designed so that answers entered into the questionnaire’s data fields can be directly imported into a single database, thereby facilitating data extraction and analysis.
5. The Word-based tool includes instructions developed by Australia and Canada, the Parties identified in Committee A of the first session of the Conference of the Parties as the key facilitators for this process. These instructions appear in the tool in the form of prominently displayed “Help”
buttons, which are embedded in the tool itself and allow the user to access specific instruction text for
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a given question. To assist Parties in entering accurate data into the instrument, the tool also allows the user to create age groups, ethnic groups and youth groups, which are then automatically reproduced in tables for each question in sections 2 and 3.
6. Completed Word-based reporting instruments can be submitted on a computer disk or sent via e-mail.
THE WEB-BASED TOOL
7. The web-based tool will provide Parties with two options for submitting their reporting data:
(a) an online location where they may upload and submit a completed Word-based reporting instrument, or (b) an interactive version of the instrument that can be completed in any of the six official languages of the Conference of the Parties and submitted online. Both functions will be demonstrated to the Conference of the Parties during its second session. For accessing the web-based tool, each Party will be provided one user account (a username and a password) to log in. Account details can be made available in any of the six official languages of the Conference of the Parties.
8. Parties that choose to upload a completed Word-based tool will also be able to attach brief summaries and relevant documentation to specified questions.
9. Parties that choose to fill out the reporting instrument online will be presented with the questions in a tree-view form. Parties may attach brief summaries and relevant documentation to specified questions by uploading the files. Users of the interactive web-based tool may save their answers and return to the questionnaire at any time before the submission of the report. This function may be most useful for Parties in situations where a number of different people are involved in the completion of the instrument.
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