The WHO FCTC Secretariat’s Knowledge Hubs and the tobacco industry monitoring centres (observatories)
The WHO FCTC Convention Secretariat works with, as part of its overall knowledge management activities and as a response to various decisions of the Conference of the Parties, institutions that could assist Parties in a number of technical areas of the Convention. These entities are also expected to assist the Convention Secretariat in fulfilling the mandates given to it by the Conference of the Parties.
These collaborative partners are:
• the WHO FCTC Secretariat’s Knowledge Hubs, that focus their work on some articles of the Convention, and specifically, on providing assistance to Parties in their implementation of those articles; and
• tobacco industry monitoring centres (observatories), that monitor, identify, document and support any work that prevent tobacco industry interference with implementation of the WHO FCTC, in line with the requirements of Article 5.3 of the Convention and the recommendations of the relevant guidelines.
Knowledge Hubs
The Convention Secretariat has established SEVEN knowledge hubs so far (at least one in each of the WHO regions). The hubs’ task is to analyze, synthesize and disseminate to the Parties to the Convention knowledge and information on matters under their expertise in relation to the Convention, in accordance with Article 22 (Cooperation in the scientific, technical, and legal fields and provision of related expertise). The knowledge hubs are global in the scope of their work, and their work will go beyond the boundaries of the hosting countries, sub-regions and regions. New knowledge hubs may be established in the future.
The first knowledge hub became operational in Australia in 2014.
Links for knowledge hubs – https://untobaccocontrol.org/kh/
Knowledge Hub for tobacco taxation (Cape Town, South Africa) – https://untobaccocontrol.org/kh/taxation/about-us/

Knowledge Hub on Smokeless Tobacco (NICPR, New Delhi, India) –
https://untobaccocontrol.org/kh/smokeless-tobacco/

Knowledge Hub on Article 5.3 (GGTC, Bangkok, Thailand) –
https://untobaccocontrol.org/kh/article-53/ and https://ggtc.world/

Knowledge Hub for Legal Challenges (McCabe Centre, Melbourne, Australia) –
https://untobaccocontrol.org/kh/legal-challenges/about-us/