A special grant from the Gates Foundation funded the meeting in Johannesburg

There is no mention of the amount of the grant, nor is it posted (at this time) on the Gates Foundation website where the last tobacco control grant mentioned is about a conference financed in Oakland. The first grant allocated in the program, in 2007, was for a conference in Oxford.

Source: January 2011 issue of the African Consortium's Newlsetter.

The last quarter of 2010 was marked by the end of projects funded under the Africa Tobacco Control Situational Analysis (ATSA), a two-year initiative to understand the critical determinants of success for tobacco control in selected countries south of the Sahara. Over 100 tobacco control stakeholders are expected from February 1 – 3, 2011 in Johannesburg, South Africa for final consultation meeting aimed at capitalizing upon the main lessons learnt from implementing this research project.

According to a communiqué issued by the organizing committee, the meeting is intended to showcase the situational analyses and policy work of the ATSA country teams. Experience sharing, identifying successes and challenges of implementation of tobacco control policies, identifying strategies to coordinate the various types of resources necessary for implementation of tobacco control in Africa are said to be some of the major highlights of this ATSA final consultation meeting.

Jacqui Drope, senior Director at the American Cancer Society and former coordinator of the project while at IDRC says it is in recognition of the “valuable tobacco control work conducted by the ATSA country teams” and the “importance of sharing this information” that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation approved a special grant to hold this meeting.

“As tobacco control continues to evolve in Africa, it is also an opportunity to highlight present initiatives such as the African Tobacco Control Consortium and the WHO/TFI project on building institutional capacity for tobacco control in the continent,” Jacqui added.

A presentation on the World Bank’s interventions on tobacco control will also be part of the meeting. 

While showcasing the situational analysis remains a key objective, discussions around perspectives on a tobacco control research agenda for Africa and perspectives on building capacities for advocacy, government and research shall be part of the three days meeting amongst others.

Participants are a mix of African civil society (NGO), governmental, and international participants involved in Tobacco Control. The ATSA countries will be represented with high number of delegations who implemented the project in their various countries in addition to government representatives invited to share experiences. Members of the organizing committee also anticipate a good number of South African government representatives including its Health Ministry.