Civil society organizations and knowledge: Contributing to global tobacco control

Background : The Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) marks the first time the World Health Organization has utilized its constitutional authority to develop a legal instrument to protect and improve the public’s health (Shibuya et al., 2003). The FCTC is considered ‘a scientific, evidence-based approach to global tobacco control’ (Taylor & Bettcher, 2000). Although research evidence is forefront in considering the development of the FCTC, there remains the need to explore the broad contributions of ‘knowledge’ by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).
Methods: Data were collected with 18 in-depth interviews with Canadian government officials and CSOs. A systematic document search was conducted. This search yielded 30 documents pertaining the involvement of Canadian CSOs in the development of the FCTC. The interviews and documents were analysed using open coding. Codes were then analysed a second time and organized along salient themes.    
Findings: The analysis indicates that CSOs played a role in knowledge creation, synthesis, and dissemination during the development of the FCTC. Along with the findings that articulate the process of knowledge generation and transfer are those that suggest that there are different types of knowledge that were used in the development of the FCTC. These types of knowledge include domestic experience with tobacco control policy, knowledge of industry practices, article specific research synthesis, including the development of reports and briefs, and knowledge of the broad determinants of health, such as the economic implications of tobacco and tobacco control.
Discussion: Two salient implications are discussed. The first implication is that CSOs may play an important role in gathering and disseminating knowledge in the development of tools for global health governance. The second implication is that although research evidence has been the primary focus of the evidence-based-governance dialogue, there are other important types of knowledge that contribute to strong global health governance.