Page 54 - TAIWAN TOBACCO CONTROL ANNUAL REPORT 2019

52 Evaluating Tobacco Controls in Various Counties and Cities The HPA has stipulated the provision of support to local governments for establishing assessment items on their tobacco control programs and providing guidelines on assessment measures to local health bureaus. Examples of assessment measures include enforcement inspections and prohibitions, monitoring the trends of various indicators, smoking cessation therapy as well as strengthening the implementation of specific areas such as objectives for the number of people receiving the second generation cessation program which would be allocated in accordance to the smoking population of each county and city. Scoring is implemented according to the achivement measured and additional points would be provided to reward and encourage special achievements or overcoming of difficult situations. For 2018, the tobacco control program assessment items included five major aspects: (1) enforcement performance, (2) inspection and auditing, (3) achievement of program objectives, (4) administrative processing time, and (5) smoking cessation therapy. For the item of enforcement performance, in order to improve the compliance of Article 10 for vending locations of tobacco products, Article 15 for areas where smoking is completely prohibited, Article 16 for designated smoking areas, and Article 13 for prohibition of sales of tobacco products to those under 18 years of age, on-site inspection results from the "Assessment for the Enforcement Performance of the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act" conducted by the Consumers' Foundation as commissioned by the HPA as well as audit performances for the aforementioned provisions in various counties were used as assessment items. In addition, to reduce the accessibility of tobacco products by teenagers, since 2014, Article 13 is newly added and specifying that tobacco products shall not be sold to those under 18 years of age as part of the auditing of performance evaluation in order to strength the protection on the health of teenagers. For the performance or progress level of each county and city in performing tobacco hazards prevention audits that is sufficient to be the rolemodel of other counties and cities, or cooperation status for handling special annual policies of the Administration such that there are specific and special performances, higher scores of evaluation are provided. The Administration will flexibly adjust the evaluation indices, annual project review and project onsite visits and management according to the needs of the policies in order to effectively enhance the completeness of the system. County and City Tobacco Control Exchange Workshops The HPA has continued to organize the annual "County and City Tobacco Control Exchange Workshop" to improve the consensus between various local policies in the enforcement of tobacco control. The purpose of the workshop is to improve the effectiveness of the national tobacco control program by functioning as a learning and exchange platform for local governments, thereby strengthening the consensus between the central and local governments in driving the program. For the employees of county and city health departments who are responsible for the prevention of the hazards of tobacco, we have improved their practical knowledge and relevant knowledge for setting up a project, and provided an exchange and learning platform between counties and cities, in order to strengthen their ability to solve and analyze problems. In 2018, a "Prevention of the Hazards of Tobacco Exchange Workshop in Cities and Counties" was conducted in eastern and northern Taiwan respectively, with a total of 173 participants. In addition to the exhibitions on