Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

CTCA performance review

One more supermeeting involving plenty of dignitaries (30 "global tobacco control advocates") coming to Kampala from far away: at what cost and with what impact? Beyond the announcement (below) we have found zero substantial information about this meeting. The CTCA's site does not contain any (yet) nor the others. After this comment was posted we received a pdf document that provides a little more information, but not much. For instance, no detailed financial data are provided. Not that any of the other group is very transparent about their finances, but that would be a step in the right direction as far as transparency and public accountability are concerned.

Smoking Kid: An interesting ad produced in Thailand

Thanks to Pascal Diethelm for mentioning it in the Global Tobacco Control Network on Facebook.

Use this link to access YouTube and get the whole screen.

BAT's illegal activities in South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon...

This article about BAT's illegal activities in South Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria.

$17,930 for the Cameroonian Coalition for Tobacco Control

Visiting the Bloomberg Initiative site, I found this grant allocated from February to August 2012 to "support adoption of the Cameroonian National Tobacco Control Bill and increase awareness of the FCTC among government officials, civil society organizations and the general public".

Why Transparency is important

Interesting post by David Roodman about how the UN is not transparent and why it should be. Amen.

 

Aid agencies limit their impact by refusing to fund the media

This excellent article by Prue Clarke, published in The Guardian was signaled by the Seattle based Humanosphere blog. Unfortunately the tobacco control grants awarded in Africa are a sad example of this lack of funding of local journalists to cover the key issues. After more than 5 years and millions of dollars, how many great articles, pictures, radio broadcasts or videos? Each project should have been, should be required to set aside funding for local journalists with a regular publishing schedule. They are key to raising the awareness and the visibility.

Winners of the 2012 World No Tobacco Day Awards in the African Region

Every year, the World Health Organization recognizes individuals or organizations from its six regions for their accomplishments in the area of tobacco control such as research, capacity building, promotion of policy or legislation and advocacy to enhance tobacco control. The World No-Tobacco Day 2012 Award Winners from the African Region are:

• Brufut Lower Basic School: the Republic of the Gambia;
• Dr Toure Fatoumata Diallo: Association de lutte contre le tabac et autres stupéfiants au Mali (ALUTAS MALI), République du Mali ;
• Coalition Against Tobacco (CAT: the Federal Republic of Nigeria;
• Dr Abdoul Aziz Kasse: Ligue Sénégalaise contre le Tabac (LISTAB), République du Sénégal ;
• Dr Deo Sekimpi: Uganda National Association of Community and Occupational Health (UNACOH), the Republic of Uganda;
• Mr Tinashe Munjoma, Meikles Hotel: the Republic of Zimbabwe.

These six award winners will be recognized for their outstanding contribution to tobacco control in their respective countries

African Lawyers Seminar about tobacco control legislation

Organized by CTFK and ATCA in Johannesburg, May 13-18 2012 for the English speaking advocates. Here for more info and the pdf report on the workshop. Another meeting was -supposedly- organized in July for French speaking lawyers but I could not find a report about it, only the announcement (in French).

A taxation workshop in Benin

The ACS blog provides some information but where are the data, ie the prices and taxes for each country and each type of tobacco product? What has been the evolution (if any) during the last years? How much should the increase be? What about smuggling? How dependent on tobacco taxes are the various governments? What percentage of the budget do tobacco taxes represent? Those are key data that should be provided. Since Bénin is a French speaking country, wouldn't it make sense to publish the information in French? 

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: Introducing Enò Isong, Associate Director of International Communications

CTFK's site initially misnamed Enò Isong as Eno isonge. She is now posted as Associate Director International Communications, without reference to Africa. As you can see from her linkedin profile she is originally from Nigeria.

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: Joshua Kyallo named Director of Africa Initiatives

"The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is pleased to announce that after a thorough search and extensive interviews, Joshua Kyallo has been named to the position of Director of Africa. A native of Kenya, Mr. Kyallo is an international development specialist with nearly twenty years' experience providing strategic leadership to complex policy and advocacy focused programs throughout Africa on behalf of international NGOs."
Source: Non profit Professionals Advisory Group

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: Introducing Eno Isonge, Associate Director of International Communications for Africa?

Visiting the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids staff page, I see "Eno Isonge, Associate Director of International Communications for Africa". Maybe CTFK could provide an introduction? Still no mention of a Director for Africa.
3 days after this post was written, we learned that Joshua Kyallo was nominated as Director of Africa Initiatives but the page listing the staff was not yet updated.

Bloomberg Initiative: $39,709 to support tobacco control regulations in Ghana

The Bloomberg Initative has awarded $39.709 to Vision for Alternative Development to support a "consolidated campaign for the Implementation of the FCTC Article 11 (Pictorial Health Warnings) and implementation of Ghana's Public Health ACT.
According to the BI site, the 6 months project aims to strengthen tobacco control in Ghana by creating the supportive environment necessary for the Implementation of Article 11 of the FCTC.

Bloomberg Initiative: $54,994 to support the enactment of tobacco control regulations in Togo

The Alliance Nationale des Consommateurs et de l’Environnement du Togo was awarded $54,994 in January 2012 by the Bloomberg Initaitive to support the development, adoption and enactment of strong regulations under the Togolese Tobacco Control Law N°2010-017 of 31/12/10. The Executive Director of ANCE is Mr Ebeh Kodjo.
According to the BI site, the project aims to promote the drafting and effective enactment of strong regulations under the Togolese Tobacco Control law.

Uganda: British American Tobacco profits are up

Read this article in The Observer.

About the White Savior Industrial Complex

In The Atlantic Magazine, the article by Teju Cole.

ACS commitment to Africa

The  American Cancer Society at a side meeting during the  15th WCTOH held in Singapore commended its Africans partners for their dedication and commitment to save millions of lives.

Source: Africa Tobacco Control Consortium Newsletter (text and picture)

Funding tobacco control in Africa: How much? What impact will the new $220 million grant have (or not)?

The Bloomberg Initiative received $375 million from Michael Bloomberg (in 2006 and 2008) and an additional $30 million from the Gates Foundation (as of July 2009). That's a total of (about) $405 million from 2007 to 2011 (5 years). That's about $81 million per year, divided between 5 entities (CTFK, The Union, The World Lung Foundation, the CDC Foundation and The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health).

The new 4 year grant of $220 million represent $55 million per year (without -for now- any additional funding from the Gates Foundation since the $18 million grant that had been mentioned in July 2011 has not been confirmed)

Tobacco Atlas 2012

The Tobacco Atlas 2012 has been released during the World Conference in Singapore. Click here to use one of the interactive maps posted on the site of The Guardian.

Bloomberg Philanthropies Announces an additional $220 million grant to fund global tobacco control for the next 4 years

Here is the link to the press-release from Bloomberg Philantrhopies and here is one to the article on Bloomberg News. Below I reproduced form the press release the part that explains what organizations will be in charge of managing the $220 million (the same a before) and what they'll do with it (essentailly the same). At the very bottom of the document I just found a link to a tumblr site that contains several videos relevant to this announcement, including the speech delivered by Mike Bloomberg at the 15th World Conference in Singapore.

Message of Ebeh Kodjo about 2011 and 2012: what is the real financial situation for ATCA and the African Consortium?

In a short email message dated December 19, Ebeh Kodjo states that "2012 will not be easy. It will be challenging, annoying, with less money and more demands." Unfortunately he does not provide any hard numbers about ATCA or the Consortium's finances for 2011 or 2012. His apparent pessimism about money seems inconsistent with the information available that seems to point toward increased resources.