The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for nominations to the World No Tobacco Day Awards for individuals or organizations in each of the six WHO Regions for their accomplishments in the area of tobacco control.
Guidelines for nominations
These criteria are intended to facilitate nominations. The final decision on whether to bestow an award rests with the WHO Regional Directors and the WHO Director-General.
Awards
There will be a maximum of six World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) awards per WHO region. Up to two awardees may receive special recognition through a WHO Director-General Special Recognition Award.
Who can make nominations
- Anyone can submit names for consideration.
Who can be nominated
- The nominee can be an individual or a collective (e.g., a nongovernmental organization devoted to tobacco control) or a government department or ministry that has made outstanding contribution to tobacco control.
- The nominee must have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of the policies and measures contained in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and its guidelines, particularly in relation to the theme of World No Tobacco Day.
- The outstanding contribution should demonstrate significant progress in advancing or implementing new tobacco control policies, or in protecting and sustaining existing achievements within the past five years. Nominators should clearly describe the nominee’s specific contribution, explaining its significance, impact, and relevance.
- WHO or other United Nations staff and their relatives.
- People or collectives employed by or involved with the tobacco industry and their relatives.
- People or collectives who had received a World No Tobacco Day award in the five previous years.
How to submit a nomination
The nomination form can be submitted by email to the WHO Regional Office (see regional contact list). Nominations should be written in one of the six WHO official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, or Spanish). The nomination form must be typed and should not exceed 200 words. Handwritten forms will not be accepted.
On each nomination form, you will need to provide the following information:
- Complete name of the nominee.
- Title of the nominee, if a person.
- Gender of the nominee, if a person.
- Address of the nominee, including email or phone.
- Language to be used on in correspondence with nominees.
- Complete name of the nominator.
- Title of the nominator, if a person.
- Address of the nominator, including email or phone.
- Detailed description of the reason for the nomination, including the dates of the actions.
- Description of the nominee’s specific contribution, explaining its significance, impact, and relevance.
- Testimonial letters from up to two individuals (other than the nominator) who support the nomination. These testimonial letters are an integral part of the nomination process, as they help to provide a complete picture of your nominee. NOTE: we do not contact the authors of the testimonial letters.
Possible reasons for nominations are:
- The nomination can be for a particular action, or for a group of actions, or for the body of a nominee's work in the area of tobacco control at any local, national, regional or international level.
- The nominee may have set a meritorious (or distinctive) example for others in the tobacco control movement.
- The nominee may have overcome a significant obstacle in achieving the objective for which they are considered worthy of a World No Tobacco Day award.
- The nominee may have demonstrated outstanding leadership or commitment, or been particularly innovative in their approach to tobacco control.
- The nominee may have brought particular resources, knowledge or expertise to bear on tobacco control.
- The nominee may have made an outstanding contribution to tobacco control as a crucial measure for reducing noncommunicable diseases and achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages).
- Nominations for reasons based on the regular parliamentary or administrative work of nominees (in official or personal capacity), e.g. the hosting or chairing of meetings, will not be considered.
Publicity of call for nominations
WHO Headquarter and Regional Offices will widely publicize the call for nominations.
Geographical representation and gender balance
Efforts should be made to ensure broad geographical representation by encouraging nominations from countries and regions that have had limited awardees in the past. Particular attention should be given to smaller or underrepresented countries to promote equitable recognition of achievements across all regions.
WHO is committed to achieving gender balance among World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) awardees and conducted a gender analysis in 2025 covering the previous five years of awards. The review found that women remain underrepresented, with women accounting for only about 40% of individual awardees, compared with around 60% for men, while roughly one third of awards were granted to institutions or organizations.
Award selection
The Regional Advisers will review the nominations and select up to six candidates per region based on the selection criteria. Each regional list will be submitted for approval by the respective WHO Regional Director (RD). After approval by the RD, the list will be submitted to the WHO Director-General (DG) for confirmation. The Regional Advisers may recommend nominees from the RD-approved regional lists to the DG for the WHO Director-General Special Recognition Award.
Announcement of awardees
WHO Headquarters will announce the awardees on the WHO tobacco control website in the week preceding World No Tobacco Day.