Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

Tobacco Control Grants from the Gates Foundation for projects in Africa

Visiting the database about grants

Browse through the list below. I stopped in 2017

 

African Women Leaders in Tobacco Control

Here

 

Youth Bridge and ending smoking in Liberia?

The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World has awarded two grants to Youth Bridge Inc, a group based in Liberia (I copied the description of the projects below). The Foundation does not directly provide the budget awarded but one can find the details by looking into the 990 forms. Here is what I found:
5/31/18: In depth assessment on the culture of smoking in Liberia: $55,458
10/26/18: bridge grant $10,500
1/2/19: report so a budget of $65,958 for this project.
12/12/18: Framing practical solutions to ending smoking in Liberia: $85,575
no report yet according to A10 page 42
Other references to the Youthhbridge project:
A15 page 53 in depth assessment $86,902
A16 page 57: to be paid: Framing practical solutions $64,181. Does that mean part of the grant has already been paid? is any report available?

According to his Facebook page, the founder of Youth Bridge, Robert Gboluma studied project management at the University of Catania. A bit more information from Youth Bridge website. but no details about what has been achieved in the two projects funded by FSFW. We'll try to learn more by contacting FSFW and Youth Bridge. Stay tuned.

Country profile for Liberia by WHO in 2019 (PDF)

Liberia Wikipedia

Coronavirus drives Malawi tobacco farmers to the brink

By Jack McBrams for AFP.

World No Tobacco Day 2020 Awards Winners in Africa

As announced on WHO's website:

African Region awardees

• Mr Wondu Bekele Woldemariam, Executive Director, Mathiwos Wondu Cancer Society, Ethiopia
• Ms Rachel Kitonyo Devotsu, Regional Coordinator for Africa, McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer, Kenya
• Mr Aboubacar Hamidou, Secrétaire administratif, Réseau de Lutte contre le Tabac et autres Stupéfiants (RELUTAS), Mali
• Mr Deowan Mohee, NGO VISA, Mauritius;
• Pr Kumako Vinyo Kodzo, Chef du programme national de lutte contre le tabac, Ministère de la santé et de l’hygiène publique, Togo
• Ms Robinah Kaitiritimba, Executive Director, Uganda National Health Users’/Consumers’ Organization, Uganda

What about African children working in tobacco fields?

WNTD 2020 is centered exclusively on the risks posed to children by smoking tobacco and how the tobacco industry targets them as future customers. But what about the children the tobacco industry exploits at the very beginning of the process, in the tobacco fields? Once more they are completely ignored :(

Here is a 2019 dossier published in the magazine Geographical about Child Labour and the tobacco industry. Also this article in The Guardian by Sara Boseley in 2018 ("supported" by Vital Strategies) or this 2014 article. On November 1, 2019 the US suspended its imports from Malawi.
Plus a lawsuit filed against BAT here and as told in The Guardian. Even more recent, this article about 'Shifting from tobacco growing to alternatives in Malawi?".

 

World No Tobacco Day 2020: exclusively via twitter?

WNTD 2020 seems to have been organized by WHO exclusively via twitter with the hashtag #tobaccoexposed. How will that choice play in Africa where twitter still does not appear to be the dominant way to communicate via social media? Plus, is social media the most effective way to share information?The 2020 campaign is a definite rupture with the previous more traditional campaigns organized by WHO that basically centered around one poster and not much else. This year the campaign looks completely virtual and I could not find any trace of a paper based item. No explanation is given for this choice. I was also surprised to see that all the pages devoted to the past WNTD campaigns were now not accessible. Strange. 

Up in smoke? Global Tobacco Control Advocacy and local mobilization in Africa

Up in smoke? Global Tobacco Control Advocacy and local mobilization in Africa, is a paper by Amy S Patterson and Elizabeth Gil, published in Oxford's International Affairs. Unfortunately, only the abstract is accessible for free. To access it for 24 hour, would cost you $45! I doubt many of our readers can make such an investment. I was allowed to read it via a friend who had access. It is a discussion on how much the big donors (like Gates and Bloomberg) influence/control the type of advocacy organized locally and how they could be wrong. Comments from advocates would be interesting, if they were willing to comment. It's hard to compare countries. Here the focus is on Ghana, Rwanda and Tanzania. I'll leave at that for now. Time for Le grande Thanksgiving, le jour de merci donnant... thank you Art. Rereading this post in 2021 and looking for Amy Patterson, I find this opinion she wrote for the Washington Post for WNTD 2021. She seems to miss the fact there is no difference between Bloomberg/GF and WHO as they are the main funders of WHO.

$5,992,617 to supply Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with "country specific data"

Visiting the Gates Foundation site I find this new grant (October 2019) to Development Gateway. If you are curious about other grants awarded to tobacco control projects concerning Africa, click here.

New Tobacco Control Act in Ivory Coast

Pascal Bogui let me know about the new Tobacco Control Act of July 23 2019, published in the Journal Officiel on October 21, 2019 (PDF in French) that has been enacted in Ivory Coast after years of efforts. Details in English here, courtesy of CTFK Tobacco Control Laws project. If you can read French you'll find lots of article via Google. As we know, passing legislation is one thing, implementation is another but all our best wishes. Et une minute de nostalgie en pensant à tous ces blogs francophones créés, et maintenant dans la nuit froide de l'oubli...

ACBF funding from the Gates Foundation: $14 million + (November 12 2018)

I had missed this info I just found on the Gates Foundation site (copy below). Those links are now (2021) useless. See below for the info.

Also see this ACBF video on Youtube (lots of blah, blah, no details)

Is vaping a potential killer or a useful aid? Different South African points of view

This article by Marika Sboros in Business Day compares the points of view of South African health professionals: Pamela Naidoo, Derek Yach and Richard Van Zyl Smit .

Twitter chats proposed by CASA

Visit CASA on twitter to discuss with Samrat Chowdhery (here the THR-rendezvous posted in 2018). I also recommend the long twitter chat with Clive Bates that took place on May 15. I only found about it today as he reposted it on his blog. Titled Rethinking tobacco and nicotine, it includes several points about Africa.

World No Tobacco Day 2019 Awards for Africa

Here are the "winners"

Every year, WHO recognizes individuals or organizations in each of the six WHO Regions for their accomplishments in the area of tobacco control. This recognition takes the form of WHO Director-General Special Recognition Award and World No Tobacco Day Awards.

Nota: I could not find any details about the accomplishments that justified the awards attributed...

WHO Director-General Special award

• His Excellency the Minister of Health Professor Kane Boubacar, Islamic Republic of Mauritania
• His Excellency the Minister of Health Dr Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

African Region awardees

• Dr Edumbadumba Egdula Pierre César, National Parliament, Democratic Republic of the Congo
• The House of People’s Representatives of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
• Ministry of Health and Quality of Life, Republic of Mauritius
• Dr Ana da Conceição dos Passos Mamede Graça, National Institute Against Drugs, Republic of Angola
• Mr Peter Unekwu-Ojo Friday, Executive Director, Cedar Refuge Foundation, Federal Republic of Nigeria

Meharry Medical College starts using Juul's funding for survey

Here the July 23 press release. Have you read the first post about this $7.5 million grant awarded by Juul? Here.

$ 3million for 20 Scholarships grants for students from Malawi funded by the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World

The Foundation announced the new program on July 22, 2019. You can read here the press release and we also reproduced the text below. I emailed Nicole Bradley about the budget (not mentioned in the press release): she replied this is a three year, $3 million program. The deadline to apply is October 17, 2019.

The grants are managed by the US based Institute for International Education.

BAT to invest in a nicotine pouches plant in Kenya

Here the link to the article by Julie Owino for Capital Business.

WHO engages African parliamentarians in Lusaka

Here the presentation of the meeting that took place on June 27.

$7.5 million funding from Juul labs to Meharry Medical College to study e-cigs

Here the press  release of Meharry Medical College (in Nashville, Tennessee), the US largest private, independent historically black academic health sciences center, founded in 1876, is a United Methodist Church-related institution. Also here the letter sent by the College's President.

Message of WHO's Regional Director for Africa for WNTD 2019

Read here the message of Dr Matshidiso Moeti,for World No Tobacco Day 2019. I did not see any specific information about the situation in Africa.

Revisiting the Gates Foundation's pages devoted to tobacco control

While the Gates Foundation has invested millions of dollars since 2008 to promote tobacco control I could find only 3 press releases, the most recent one on April 12, 2010. How is that for transparency or rather lack of, quasi-total opacity? There is no global report available that would detail what/who has been funded and with what results during all those years. Googling a bit more, I found a 2014 press release of November 19, 2014 posted on the ACBF site (see below). Anything else?

WNTD 2019 - Are you inspired by this poster?

World No Tobacco Day is organized by the Tobacco Free Initiative of the World Health Organization. There is no mention of who designed this poster. What do you think of it?

Campaign for Safer Alternatives launched

According to this March 19 article in Tobacco Reporter,  CAmpaign for Safer Alternatives, CASA, chaired by Joseph Magero was launched:

"Joseph Magero, chair of the Campaign for Safer Alternatives and holder of a Global Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship, said society’s relationship with tobacco and nicotine was changing due to technical developments in vaping devices and other safer nicotine products. “The Campaign for Safer Alternatives has formally launched this week to ensure more people across East Africa receive accurate information on alternatives to smoking,” he said. “By arming people with information, we can finally begin to curb the tobacco epidemic.”

Projects presently funded by CTFK in Africa: only one left (as of now) in 2019? ACBF now the main source?

Go and visit the database of grants awarded by CTFK. I found only a project in Chad.

Maybe/probably most of the grants are now awarded by the African Capacity Building Foundation, as presented in this September 2018 video? Zero detailed information about the amounts involved and the projects themselves. At the very end they say they intend to fund more projects in more countries but that's all. The ACBF provided us  with 4 pdf documents you can access via the urls below:

document 1 , document 2 , document 3, document 4

Rendez-vous with Marie Maurisse

Cyberinterview with Marie Maurisse, author of the investigative report The blazing success of Swiss cigarettes in Africa.

Philip Morris in talks to buy Majority stake in Kenyan Tobacco company

Kenya’s Mastermind Tobacco is expected to sell its majority stake to Philip Morris International Inc, at undisclosed amount if their current talks conclude successfully. Mastermind manufacture brands that target the poorer smokers in the region with brands such as Supermatch, Superman, Rocket and Rally.

Tobacco control experts from 13 African countries meet in Kenya

Tobacco control experts from 13 African countries meet in Nairobi, Kenya to chart the way forward to accelerate implementation of graphic health warnings on tobacco packages. The workshop was supported by WHO Regional Office for Africa. They included Members of Africa Tobacco control Alliance . Kenya Tobacco Control Alliance, World Health Organization Africa Region amongst others.

Africa seems to be lagging behind when it comes to pictorial warnings on cigarettes packs , and even plain packaging. This is blamed on feasibility and unwillingness from Tobacco companies. Although the deliberations of the meetings have not been made public , we will continue to monitor the situation keenly. Less than 15 African countries have pictorial warnings on their cigarette packets , with some claiming that this will have very little impact since most smokers in Africa purchase single stick cigarettes.

Made in Switzerland's cigarettes sold in Africa more toxic

This investigation by Marie Maurisse that won an investigation award from Public Eye focused on Morocco shows that cigarettes made in Switzerland and sold in Africa by Big Tobacco companies are more toxic (more nicotine, more tar) than those sold in Europe.

Cape Verde new tobacco control law

Tobacco control in Cape Verde has picked up a notch. The fight against tobacco will go through a ban on smoking indoors and control of sales to minors, according to a plan that will help implement the new law that is expected to be approved soon.

Malawi turning to Marijuana farming after tobacco demand dwindles

Malawi is set to become the next African country to legalize marijuana farming in a bid to boost its economy. This comes as its major foreign exchange earner tobacco starts to see the impact of a decades-long global anti-smoking lobby led by organizations including the World Health Organization and other African based tobacco control organizations.

Ethiopia drafts stringiest tobacco control laws

In a bid to prevent the public from a devastating health consequences attributed to tobacco products, the Ethiopian government is set to introduce a stringent law that will restrict the tobacco industry from having any interference and interaction with government officials mainly responsible for the adoption of public health policy and implementations.

Egypt: Launch of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control FCTC2030 project

The Health Ministry, in cooperation with the United Nations, launched in Cairo the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) 2030 project. This is to boost tobacco control efforts in the country.

GAMBIA: volunteers trained on tobacco monitoring

In Gambia, the African Network for Information and Action against Drugs (RAID) , recently trained over 20 of its volunteers on monitoring of the implementation of the 2016 Tobacco Control Act tools.RAID Gambia is a registered non-governmental organisation which champions a number of causes such as anti-smoking, substance abuse, illicit drugs trafficking, Aids / HIV, anti baby abandoning and teen pregnancy. The organisation was formed after the realisation that substance abuse and illegal drugs trafficking posed a detrimental effect on public health and the socio-economic structure.

Illicit cigarette brand top seller in South Africa

South Africa has become the first country in the world with an illegal cigarette brand as a top seller! Illegal cigarettes are preferred for their low prices in South Africa, with the cigarette brand RG retailing at the lowest price of 10 Rand. RG has overtaken all legal brands including the preffered cigarette brand in the country Peter Stuyvesant, giving South Africa the dubious honor of being the first country in the world with an illegal cigarette brand as its top seller.

Morocco’s Finance bill of 2019 to raise taxes on cigarettes

The finance committee to the House of Representatives has adopted 56 amendments on the 2019 Finance Bill, including a tax increase on shisha. The 2019 Finance Bill will increase the domestic consumption tax on certain cigarette brands.The tax increase will affect the most widely-consumed cigarettes on the market, Marlboro, and Marquise. Marlboro packs will be sold for MAD 40 instead of 33, and Marquise for MAD 21 instead of 19. Minister of Economy and Finance Mohamed Benchaaboun explained the tax hike in a press conference Monday at the ministry’s headquarters in Rabat.

Bloomberg tobacco control grants calls for 25th round of proposals

The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use Grants Program is an important component of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use. With funds from Michael R. Bloomberg, through his charitable foundation Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Grants Program is competitive and supports projects to develop and deliver high-impact evidence-based tobacco control interventions. The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use places a priority on countries with the highest prevalence of tobacco use. Round 25 is an open grant round, so is open to any low or middle-income country. Organizations are invited to submit proposals, with an early December 2018 deadline.

KETCA holds a tobacco control forum at Nazarene University

The kenya tobacco control alliance (KETCA) held a student centered tobacco control forum earlier this week. The purpose for the forum that brought students from both public and private universities was to sensitize the students on the dangers of tobacco use, to gain support for the enforcement of shisha ban and ultimately, to bring together students to deliberate on how they can be meaningfully engaged in the fight against tobacco.

Lesotho busts illicit South African cigarettes worth 1 Million Rand

Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA) has released a statement confirming the confiscation of 380,000 illicit cigarettes at the Maseru Bridge on Sunday night. Confiscation of the cigarettes forms part of the Authority’s routine checks on compliance of tobacco and tobacco products in Lesotho. This is the biggest single bust on illicit cigarettes in Lesotho in the past five years. The cigarettes were worth just over a million Loti, which is a similar amount in South African rands.

Africa Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) elects two new board members

 Africa Tobacco Control Alliance , which is a Pan-African civil society network of more than 120 civil society organizations dedicated to preventing an epidemic of tobacco use on the African continent, recently elected 2 new board members. In a board election held last month, ATCA elected  Emma Wanyonyi, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of International institute of legislative affairs, based in Kenya. Also elected on to the board is Mr. Djibril Welle of Senegal.

Kenya Tobacco Control Alliance (KETCA) calls for increased taxes

The chairman for Kenya Tobacco Control Alliance , Mr. Joel Shunza Gitali in a recent interview on public television, called for an increase in tobacco taxes by Government. He argues that an increase in taxes will add revenue to the Government ex-checker and saves lives as well. KETCA have been spearheading this campaign since 2008.

Tobacco taxation workshop in Cape Town

The GCRF Tobacco Control Capacity Programme has held a one week workshop of expert sessions to support research fellows with their tobacco control taxation plans. Among topics discussed were illicit trade and tobacco taxation, in line with the framework convention on tobacco control guidelines.

Project on Tobacco Tax Advocacy Underway in Nigeria

The Civil Society Legislative Society Advocacy Center (CISLAC) is collaborating with Tax Justice Network Africa to create awareness on tobacco Tax Advocacy in Nigeria. The project is themed "supporting effective tobacco control through responsive tax  systems in Nigeria."

Are companies using study tours to promote smoking?

ATCA tweets about this article in New Vision (Uganda) by Jonathan Driliga. I don't know about promoting smoking but it looks like this factory is polluting the environment and its neighbors :(

Cameroon's government plans to increase taxes and install graphic warnings

Cameroon’s government has made public its plans geared at ensuring an increase in taxes on tobacco products in the country.

This disclosure was made in the past month in the capital, Yaounde, by the Technical Adviser in the Minister of Public Health, Dr. Samuel Kingue, during a belated ceremony to mark the 2018 World No Tobacco Day. Dr. Kingue, who is also the President of Cameroon Cardiac Society, noted that the day is observed worldwide on every May 31 but for some technical reason, the commemoration in Cameroon was postponed.

Tobacco Control capacity building program launched in Kampala ,Uganda

On the 24^th October 2018, a high-level stakeholder engagement meeting was held at the Kampala Golden Tulip Hotel, where GCRF tobacco control capacity program and the Center for Tobacco control in Africa (CTCA) launched the tobacco control capacity-building programme (TCCP) in Uganda.

Ghana to get pictorial warnings on cigarette packs from November 1

From November 1st, 2018, all tobacco products will bear pictorial warnings on both sides. This announcement was made by Ghana's Food and Drugs Authority C.E.O, Mrs. Delese Darko. The introduction of pictorial warnings on cigarette packs is in line with the fulfillment of section 10 of Ghana's Tobacco Control Regulations, 2016 (L. I. 2247) and also seeks to fulfill their obligation as a party to the  Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC).

Who attended COP8 in Geneva? At what cost? Does anybody care?

Want to know who represented your country during the COP8 meetings in Geneva? Have a look at the list. Maybe you'll be surprised by the size of some delegations, wondering what the cost has been in travel and hospitality. A few examples below. Some do live in Geneva as they work for the Permanent Mission there but not all. Are so many delegates really necessary? Were there more than 130 people representing FCA?(pages 36, 37) as "observers'?

FCA bulletins from COP 8

Find below the links to the daily bulletins produced by FCA during COP8 (pdf format) with a few comments from my part. Thanks a lot to FCA for communicating about what happened.

Welcome to Joseph Magero as a guest author of this blog

While I am still very concerned about what happens in Africa, I have been unable to devote as much time and attention that I think is needed so I have happily accepted Joseph's offer to contribute by writing posts that he would publish as a guest author on Tobacco Control in Africa. Welcome Joseph.
Philippe
PS: In the past I offered to many African advocates the possibility to open their own blog but I am also open to sharing TCA.

A rendez-vous with Joseph Magero

I initially posted this cyber interview on my THR-rendezvous blog. It also belongs here.

Joseph Magero writes a blog called Tobacco Harm Reduction and he is active on Twitter.
Thank you, Joseph, for accepting our rendez-vous.

May I first ask you to introduce yourself by giving us a brief personal background about your journey in tobacco control and tobacco harm reduction?

Joseph Magero: I am a tobacco harm-reduction advocate based in Kenya.