In order to make our societies healthier, we need to ensure that people can easily engage in health-promoting activities. It is not enough to teach people what to do: if children beg for junk food, it is difficult to resist; if people are surrounded by junk food ads, or have no access to walkable places, they are unlikely to eat healthfully and get enough exercise. Tobacco ads encourage smoking; ads for soft drinks encourage consumption of excessive sugar.

In order to discuss how policies can contribute to better health, Work for a Better Bangladesh Trust, with support from HealthBridge and many other organizations, and with financial support from The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, organized a Conference on Tobacco and Health Promotion on 4 Jan. I spoke at the conference about the importance of health-promoting policies, as well as on inclusive development and on sustainable funding. Other topics were healthy diet and healthy environment.

The conference, attended by about 160 people from all over the country, provided an important opportunity for health and other professionals to share their views and learn from each other. It also gave us an opportunity to push people to consider being more inclusive of people with disabilities in their programming and planning. Our hope is that a sustainable funding mechanism will eventually ensue, based on a surcharge on tobacco products and later on other harmful products, so that a steady fund will be available to work towards health-promoting environments in Bangladesh.