Student Advocacy Efforts to Remove Tobacco Advertising from Their School Environment, Jakarta & Bandung, Indonesia

Background and challenges to implementation By Indonesian law, schools are tobacco-free areas, where sales, advertisements, and use are banned. However, tobacco companies still advertise near schools, through billboards or branding of kiosks. We conducted surveys of school areas in 5 cities and found tobacco advertisements near 85 percent of areas surveyed. After these findings were captured, we approached schools in Jakarta and Bandung with these results. Intervention or response Eight schools mobilized to remove tobacco advertising in their school environments. This effort was spearheaded by school principals and other community stakeholders. At the same time, we worked to educate the students about the impact of tobacco advertising. The students assisted with the effort to remove the tobacco advertising, visiting their local government officials to explain these harms. Results and lessons learnt In 2016, advertisements were removed from 8 school areas, as a result of advocacy from the students and school administrators to local kiosk owners and officials. Although Jakarta has a smoke-free area law, we found that these laws are not always followed, and thus community education, followed by action is necessary to ensure that these communities remain ad-free. This project, in combination with other advocacy efforts, led to the adoption of a smoke-free law in Bandung. Further, these actions sparked attention from the media, due to the creative methods students and communities used to remove the advertising. Civilian grassroots efforts can help to spark change in communities, leading to wider acceptance and adoption of tobacco control laws. Conclusions and key recommendations While some Indonesian cities have regulations to ban outdoor advertisements near schools, not all school environments are protected by these regulations. This project shows the benefit of engaging non-traditional community stakeholders, from youth to school administrators to government officials, to ensure that TAPS bans are followed in places like Indonesia, where enforcement is weak, and in other contexts where policies are not thoroughly implemented.