Global Youth Tobacco Survey
Data Release Policy
Section 1—Partners and Partners' Roles
The GYTS functions as a multi-partner project representing global, regional,
and national associates. Its purpose is to assist countries in assessing and
responding to their particular situation and needs. Countries should use the
GYTS as a mechanism to guide the development, implementation, and evaluation
of their tobacco control programs as part of their national capacity building
process. By adopting the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC),
GYTS can also serve as the primary data source to use in monitoring many of
the FCTC articles.
At the global and regional levels, WHO (headquarters and the six regional
offices) and CDC are the lead agencies managing the GYTS. At the national level,
the GYTS is managed through the governments, as defined by the countries' policies
and procedures and their contracts with global partners. CDC plays a predominantly
technical role; WHO is primarily responsible for GYTS management and implementation.
WHO Headquarters
The role of the WHO headquarters (HQ) is to provide a global policy framework
for implementing and using GYTS data. In particular, HQ facilitates the GYTS
process through coordinating the efforts of the regional offices (ROs) and other
programs, developing partnerships, disseminating data, and ensuring capacity
building and political commitment.
WHO Regional Offices
The six WHO ROs plan, organize, operate, and manage the GYTS for countries
within their respective regions. The ROs serve as the center for disseminating
data, promoting political commitment, and urging countries to implement and
distributing GYTS results in their respective regions. The ROs work collaboratively
with the global partners in selecting the countries, training and analysis workshop
plans and management, and administration the funds for GYTS implementation.
ROs collaborate with CDC to train countries in the collectiing and analyzing
of their country's GYTS data. The ROs cooperate with WHO country representatives
in the GYTS process.
CDC
CDC is a WHO collaborating center for the GTSS and has a cooperative agreement
with WHO. CDC provides financial and technical support for GYTS, including survey
design and sample selection, training research coordinators (RC) for fieldwork
implementation procedures, data management and processing, initial tabulation
of the data, and training the RC to analyze the data. CDC also serves as the
GYTS data-coordinating center.
National Governments
National governments participate in GYTS by committing resources to the project,
allying with national sponsors, nominating the RCs, facilitating the survey,
making certain that the country's report is completed in a timely manner, ensuring
continuity, using GYTS results for developing policy and national tobacco control
programs, and monitoring the implementing of national tobacco control programs
and FCTC when applicable. National governments cannot use funds received either
directly or indirectly (e.g., through a non-tobacco company controlled by a
tobacco manufacturing company) from the tobacco industry to finance any aspect
of the GYTS. National governments should obtain a commitment from the
RCs and the national sponsors selected by them not to use funds received directly
or indirectly from the tobacco industry to finance any aspect of their contribution
to, or their participation in, the GYTS. National governments should also
assure, to the extent possible, that RCs and national sponsors hold no other
tobacco industry-related interests that could influence their participation
in the GYTS.
GYTS Country Research Coordinator
The WHO ROs are responsible for contacting each country within their region
to ascertain the countries' interests for participating in GYTS. The selection
of countries is based on mutual agreement between national and global partners
and the availability of funds. The WHO ROs work in collaboration with governments
to select the appropriate RC (institution and/or individual) within the country
to implement the GYTS. Some countries may have several survey sites, and separate
RCs per site may be selected. The RC is responsible at the survey site or the
country level for survey implementation, data collection, analysis, publication,
and dissemination.
Associate Partner
An associate partner is an agency or organization that collaborates with
the lead agencies to provide financial and/or technical assistance. The associate
partner agencies enter into a partnership through a memorandum of understanding
with lead agencies. This memorandum of understanding contains a clause stating
the associate partner guarantees that it will not use funds received either
directly or indirectly from the tobacco industry for the purpose of its contribution
to the GYTS and that it has no other interests concerning the tobacco industry
that could influence its contribution to, or participation in, the GYTS.
The management committee must approve all potential associate partners. In
no case should an associate partner directly interact with a country without
the involvement of WHO and CDC. The Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA)
has been an important associate partner for the GYTS and has sponsored workshops
and funded implementation costs for selected countries.
Data Coordinating Center
CDC is designated as the data coordinating center and depository for the
GYTS data. CDC provides technical assistance for survey design and sample selection,
fieldwork procedures, data management processing (including scanning the forms
and editing and weighting the data), and initial data analysis. This coordination
function is vital to the continued success of GYTS in three ways:
- Individual countries can be assured that their data will receive high
quality support.
- As countries begin to repeat the GYTS, they will be assured that their
analysis of trends will be grounded in strong and consistent statistical procedures
and practices.
- The standardized process will enable cross-country analyses that will
be important to the direction and development of global tobacco programs and
policies.
Resources
Funding for the GYTS can come from a variety of sources. When funding is
made available through WHO, the appropriate contractual agreement will be issued
by the RO to the RC. In cases when funding is made available directly to the
country by associate partners, the appropriate contractual agreement from the
associate partners will be used; it will be signed by the country and the funding
partner; and the RO will be informed. When funding comes from a national sponsor,
the RC has to execute the contractual agreement with that entity. Regardless
of the funding source, all participating countries must adhere to the standard
operating procedures of the GYTS.
Page last reviewed 03/12/2007
Page last modified 03/12/2007
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