Conference of the Parties Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on a Protocol on Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products Fifth session Geneva, Switzerland, 29 March – 4 April 2012 Provisional agenda item 3
FCTC/COP/INB-IT/5/INF.DOC./1 29 February 2012
Estimated costs for assistance to Parties in the period prior to entry into force of the protocol to eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products Note by the Convention Secretariat 1. At the request of the informal working group on the draft protocol established by the fourth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP4),1 this document provides an update of the anticipated costs for assistance to Parties in the period prior to entry into force of the protocol that were presented to COP4 in document FCTC/COP/4/INF.DOC./1 on financial implications of measures contained in the draft protocol to eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products (paragraphs 27 and 28). The present document is not a budget proposal, but rather an overview of anticipated costs with the aim of facilitating any potential discussion on the subject during the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB). The Secretariat will incorporate the estimated costs, taking into account any input received at the fifth session of the INB, in the interim performance report for the 2012–2013 workplan and budget and in the draft workplan and budget for the biennium 2014–2015 to be presented to COP5. 2. Going by the experience of the WHO FCTC, it is likely that the Convention Secretariat would be expected to provide technical assistance and to carry out regional and country-based awarenessraising work in the period prior to entry into force of the protocol. Six regional workshops would probably need to be organized, one per region. In addition, the Secretariat would probably be required to conduct country missions (to approximately 15 countries) in order to provide individual support on request, and to prepare at least five technical papers on various aspects of the protocol to assist Parties in the period prior to entry into force of the protocol and in implementation. 1
See decision FCTC/COP4(11).
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The cost breakdown is as follows: (a) Regional workshops (six) Including travel support to delegates from low- and lowermiddle-income Parties in line with the travel support policy adopted by COP4, plus the travel of Secretariat staff and experts, and related interpretation, documentation and logistic costs, amounting on average to US$ 110 000 per workshop (b) Country missions (on request; approximately 15 countries) Including, on average, two experts per country mission to provide technical assistance to individual countries (c) Expert papers Potentially five papers on different provisions of the protocol, for use globally, in the six official languages of the COP 3. The total cost for technical assistance provided in the pre-entry into force period would therefore be US$ 950 000. This amount is lower than the earlier estimated cost contained in document FCTC/COP/4/INF.DOC./1 of US$ 1 200 000, which reflects the aim that the Secretariat is pursuing of reducing costs given the current financial realities and the expectations of Parties for more costefficiency. The decrease was achieved, in particular, by: • reducing the number of projected country missions from 25 to 15 (individual assistance to some Parties could potentially be provided through e-mail and other modes of at-a-distance communication); • limiting the projected number and expected volume of expert papers (which could be achieved through consolidation of topics); and • applying the new travel policy adopted by COP4, which limits full travel support to the leastdeveloped countries only, with the other low- and lower-middle-income countries receiving air ticket coverage only. These measures resulted in a net saving, as presented above, despite the rising cost of some components such as air tickets, translation and interpretation. 4. Further cost savings, in particular considerable travel cost savings, could be achieved if the faceto-face regional workshops were to be replaced by other forms of communication. One possibility would be to conduct meetings remotely using information technology, including through so-called webinars. Participants in webinars interact with one another in a videoconference organized through and conducted over the Internet, with meeting materials distributed prior to the webinar via e-mail. If necessary, WHO country offices would be requested to assist in promoting access for participants to the webinars. There may, however, be limitations with regard to interaction among participants and simultaneous interpretation in comparison with face-to-face meetings, so that it may be deemed desirable to organize a larger number of such workshops, each with a smaller number of participants, and to group participation by language. The number of online meetings would as a result potentially US$ 130 000 US$ 160 000 US$ 660 000
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be higher (up to 10) than face-to-face workshops. The cost of such meetings would consist predominantly of expert, interpretation and documentation costs, and potentially some local logistics, while the travel costs of participants and Secretariat staff would be eliminated. Depending the number of online meetings, if deemed practical by Parties, and the organizational aspects, the total cost of 10 such meetings would be up to US$ 300 000 compared with US$ 660 000 for six regional face-toface workshops. This would also make the total cost of technical support come to up to US$ 600 000, compared with a total cost of US$ 950 000 if the regional workshops were to be convened in the traditional face-to-face manner. The above costs increase to up to US$ 680 000 and US$ 1 075 000, respectively, if the programme support cost of 13%, payable to WHO, is added. 5. Secretariat staff costs that may additionally be required for technical assistance in the pre-entry into force period are not reflected above and will be presented to COP5 as part of the draft next workplan and budget, taking into account the final scope and provisions of the protocol and WHO staff cost estimates for the next biennium. Similarly, the cost of the software for a global information sharing point is not included above, pending the technical requirements and characteristics of such software, that would derive from the final text of the protocol. However the estimate provided in the paper submitted to COP4 (document FCTC/COP/4/INF.DOC./1) of around US$ 500 000 (or US$ 400 000 if developed in English only), can still be considered to be a reasonable estimate pending the finalization of the relevant provisions of the protocol.
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