sfc-network meeting iceland - europa · sfc-n meeting hamburg june 2009 which are/seem to be the...

SFC-N Meeting Hamburg June 2009

SFC-Network Meeting Iceland

Hamburg, Germany

8.-9. June 2009

Viðar JenssonProject Manager

Public Health Institute of Iceland


Public Health Institute of Iceland was officially established on July 1st 2003 and is answerable to the Ministry of Health

Involvement in tobacco control/smoking prevention

Art. 9 Tobacco Control Council

The role of the Tobacco Control Council is to work on preventive measures against use of tobacco.

The Ministry of Finance shall confer with the Tobacco Control Council with regard to policymaking on the import and pricing of tobacco goods.

The Council’s views shall be elicited on all regulations relating to tobacco control and sale of tobacco.

The Public Health Institute shall receive 0.9% of gross tobacco sales, to be devoted to preventive measures against use of tobacco, and the funds shall be expended in consultation with the Minister,

Sources of funding

Tobacco Control Act 2002 no. 6, 31 JanuaryArt. 15It is compulsory to allocate at least 0.9% of gross tobacco sales to tobacco control.


There is ongoing work at the Ministry to possibly bring together or combine institutions.

But we have good intentions as the picture below shows:


SFC in Iceland

school year 08/09

• Numbers of participating classes324 or 6260 pupils

• We have been running SFC for 10 years now and there has always been very good and stable participation or around 60-70%

• retention rates & comparison for this year n/a yet


• There has been very good cooperation with the school community and the project is well known.

• We have not been seeking sponsors except Icelandair and we have had limits on any marketing towards the schools through our projects.

• effects of lack of EU-funding

We intend to run SFC for the next school year but because of the uncertainty about the future of our institution we don‘t know what the future will bring us.


Highlights – Participating in the

creative contest to be able to win the main prizes

has been high and reveals a lot of work

throughout the country.

This can be seen in local newspapers and often

involves their community.

We received many different projects this year and the trend was more visual projects and board

games.


• 1 prize was a trip to Copenhagen. We organized a 3 day trip for the winning class. The winning class came from Reyðarfjörður (east part of Iceland) this year and contained 18 pupils. Among other things we did with them was a day in Tívoliand to the Zoo. This was announced on our website along with other news of the competition.

• Second and third prize was a iPod nano for pupils in one class and third prize money for a day trip for one class.


• Problems?

We have been running the project more or less in the same way for 10 years and

possibly it might be coming too foreseen and lacks new ideas or elements. Still there

are always new pupils so maybe this is not such a big problem?


Which are/seem to be the most important

features of SFC?

From my experience:

The most important feature of SFC is that it works towards positive peer pressure.

Where the creative contest is being implemented it works to strengthen the class as a whole and can work in a positive way in their group work way out of any tobacco prevention.

In fact SFC has many positive features.


• Which are/seem to be the most important strengths and advantages of SFC?

The history and the success on cross Europe level gives the project weight and creditability.

Flexibility for each country to develop it’s own policy and rules.

And in our national competition we give the schools also a flexibility to decide if they can or want to participate in the creative part of the competition.

Very well coordinated from IFT – nord.


• Which are/seem to be the most important

shortcomings and hurdles of SFC?

If SFC-Network will get weak because of lack of EU-funding and then I mean for the network itself. Get funding for the project seems to be unlikely at least for a while.

• Which are your most important

recommendations/concerns

Keep the network strong and effective.


5) Future steps

• What do you wish?

• What do you worry about?

There aren‘t many good projects for this age group around!


• What could improve SFC and SFC-N?

• Your ideas for SFC and SFC-N in future (e.g. outputs and focusses of SFC-N activities, re-introduction of a European main prize, …)

sfc-network meeting iceland - europa · sfc-n meeting hamburg june 2009 which are/seem to be the...

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