Day 2 of the ATSA meeting in Johannesburg - on Cancerblogs

This post on Cancerblogs presents Day 2 of the ATSA meeting.

Day Two at the Africa Tobacco Situational Analyses Meeting

Participants in the Africa Tobacco Situational Analyses (ATSA) meeting, representing 29 African countries, gathered for a second day of discussion in Johannesburg, South Africa, on February 2. The meeting, featuring key reports from ATSA country projects, was rich in opportunities to engage in information exchange and stimulating debates. Morning presentations allowed participants to learn more about the meeting partners’ diverse initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa, notably the strategies developed by the World Health Organization’s Tobacco Free Initiative, which strive to close the capacity gaps in tobacco control on the continent. The meeting also presented a comprehensive picture on the African Tobacco Control Consortium’s (ATCC) objectives and projects. These centered on the development, implementation, protection, and integration of policies designed to reduce tobacco use and exposure in Africa. Researchers from the Universities of Cape Town and Pretoria also presented their most recent initiatives, undertaken in collaboration with theAmerican Cancer Society. These endeavors aim to build capacity on the economics of tobacco control and to support promising students across Africa, encouraging them to contribute to priority policy areas. To fully address the topic of tobacco control research in Africa, participants dedicated an extensive amount of time to a discussion about current perspectives related to this issue. Breakout groups focused on topics such as establishing concrete priority research themes and methodological challenges, as well as identifying opportunities for collaboration with researchers at the national and regional levels. Bridging gaps between research and advocacy actors was also discussed. To wrap up these discussions on research and capacity-building, Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, vice president of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society, concluded this second day by presenting relevant data on the cancer burden in Africa, the recent changes in the epidemiology of the disease on the continent, and the challenges and opportunities for prevention associated with common risk factors. These findings are the subject of a special section on cancer in Africa in Global Cancer Facts & Figures, 2nd edition, to be released on Friday, February 4.