Final Activity Report

Participation in conferences and seminars

During the project implementation I have participated in 3 IPF seminars in Budapest, Hungary.

In May, 2003 I have participated in a seminar "Effective Advocacy and Movement Building for Tobacco Control" in Bucharest, Romania. The conference was very useful for me in terms of joining international coalitions involved in tobacco-control issues.

In August I have participated in the 2003 World Conference on Tobacco Control in Helsinki, where I obtained very useful printed and electronic material on Tobacco Control.

Data collection and collaboration

From March, 2003 I started to identify the data types and statistical background, which would be used for the further research process. I reviewed the experience of other countries. I spent hours just browsing through various web-sites. I found several research papers devoted to tobacco control policy in poor countries. The case of Bangladesh was a real challenge. The case has been investigated by a large number of researchers. I summarized outputs/findings of the aforementioned papers in order to employ as an overall framework of my research.

Meanwhile I visited a number of poor families in the suburbs of Yerevan (more than half of inhabitants of Armenia are concentrated in Yerevan). I decided to investigate the poor ‘family life’ in order to put conclusions obtained on the basis of my research to make it realistic and vital as much as possible.

For the same reason I started to arrange meetings with entities/organizations related to healthcare problems and researching the reasons for widespread illnesses/diseases in Armenia. I also arranged a timetable for meetings with various tobacco control-related organizations.

During the first 2 weeks of July I have conducted various observations aimed at evaluating the public awareness in tobacco control. Those observations allowed me to come to several conclusions and formulate relevant policy measures.

I established good relations with professors from the Primary Health Care Department of Yerevan State Medical University. Their substantial experience was very helpful for my further research activities.

Round Table discussions

Given the fact that the third proposed seminar in Budapest had been removed from agenda, it was decided to use the saved funds for arranging round table discussions with those professionals who could help in reaching the project objectives. Correspondingly two round tables had been organized - one in December, second in January – devoted to the tobacco control advocacy problems in Armenia. Both round tables had been organized in ICHD.

Web page construction

Given the opportunities provided by the project (web tools, web space etc.), I constructed the project site and placed it at http://www.policy.hu/lalayan. The site represents the main aspects of the project, and other relevant information.

Co-operation with mentors

The agenda of the collaboration with my local mentor Dr. Armen Darbinian had been to meet once a month to discuss project related issues and ideas. Such approach of mentorship was an engine to the project during a whole year.

First time I met with my international mentor Mr. Neil Collishaw in Helsinki during the 2003 World Conference on Tobacco Control. We decided actively discuss project related issues vie e-mail communications. At the end Mr. Collishaw reviewed my policy paper and sent me his written positive opinion.

Writing and Publishing the Brochure “The Real Threat of Smoking”

I collaboration with Dr. Olga Vardanyan I elaborated the brochure entitled “The Real Threat of Smoking”, which was published with the financial support of American Cancer Society. The brochure attempts to focus Armenian society's attention on the hazardous consequences of smoking; make this topic a subject of discussion; pose questions rarely raised in the local press; and especially explain why smoking is so dangerous.

Policy paper development

As my project is interrelated with the similar project of Mr. Paruyr Amirjanyan (a single project had been split into two - mine more focused at policy advice and Mr. Amirjanyan's more focused at economic research) we have had many discussions on the methodology of incorporation of these two separate projects as well as the division of work.

In March 2004 I completed all the works on the final paper and sent the final draft for comments to my local and international mentors. I considered all the comments and came up with the final paper, which is placed in my policy.hu site.