Saifuddin Ahmed is awarded for SAARC Award on Tobcco Control

Saifuddin Ahmed, coordinator of The Bangladesh Anti Tobacco Alliance (BATA, Bangladesh Tamak Birodhi Jote) is awarded for "Tobacco Control Award for Excellence and Leadership in SAARC Countries". This award is handed-over in the ongoing (17^th to 21^st March 2015) 16^th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) at Abu Dhabi yesterday evening during Luther J Terry award ceremony hosted by the American Cancer Society. Tobacco control award for the SAARC countries provided by Cancer Aid Society India. Saifuddin Ahmed is the only tobacco control leader among all SAARC countries for SAARC leadership and excellence.

However, he received many other prestigious awards/scholarships including ‘World No Tobacco Day Award 2006’ and BATA also received award ‘World No Tobacco Day Award 2001’ by World Health Organization (WHO). BATA also considered as model civil society movement against tobacco throughout the world and it is documented joint publication by the The World Bank and Research for International Tobacco Control (RITC). The story titled “Building Momentum for Tobacco Control: The Case of Bangladesh” and book titled Tobacco Control Policy: Strategies, Successes & Setbacks.

Saifuddin Ahmed is involved couple of research on tobacco control perspective. His research articles and abstracts were published peer reviewed journal and various international conferences publication. One of most reputed research on tobacco control, “Hungry for Tobacco: An analysis of the economic impact of tobacco consumption on the poor in Bangladesh” is published in ‘Tobacco Control’ in 2001; it is an international peer-reviewed journal for health professionals and others in tobacco control. To consider this research, World Health Organization (WHO) selected theme (tobacco and poverty: a vicious circle) for World No Tobacco Day 2004. His another joint research “Gainfully Employed? an inquiry into Bidi-dependent livelihood in Bangladesh” is published in ‘Tobacco Control’ in 2011. He is author/co-author of about 15 publications and editor/co-editor of other 20 publications on tobacco control.

Mr. Saifuddin Ahmed is represented civil society to the various conferences and events on global tobacco control since 1998. He attended 5 of Asia-Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health (APACT), held every 3 years from 2001 to 2013 (from 6^th to 10^th) and 5 of World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) held every 3 years from 2000 to 2012 (11^th to 15^th). He represented to the Inter-governmental Negotiating Body (INB) and Conference of the Party (COP) of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). However, he also attended couple of World Health Assembly (WHA), World Lung Conference (WLC) and World Cancer Congress (WCC) with his presentations.

It needs to mention that, due to delay of visa process, Saifuddin Ahmed is not able to joint award reciving event at Abu Dhabi. On-be-half of Saifuddin Ahmed, Ms. Debra Efromson, the international advisor of BATA recived this award from Dr. John Seffrin, CEO of the American Cancer Society and Ms. Sally Cowal, Senior Vice President Global Program, American Cancer Society. Neha Tripathi Director of Cancer Aid Society India was present during this event.

Due to his professional career on last 18 years on global tobacco control, he traveled more than 40 countries including Australia, Brazil, Bhutan, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hongkong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Kenya, Myanmar, Maldwip, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Philippine, South Africa, South Korea, SriLanka, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Uruguay, UAE, UK and USA.