Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

Slow Ideas

Atul Gawande's fascinating article in this week's issue of the New Yorker, about 'Some innovations spread fast. How do you speed those that don't.' Any lessons for tobacco control?

Did the Gates Foundation evaluate the African Tobacco Control Consortium?

In the report about the May 15 meeting in Dakar devoted to the future of tobacco control advocacy in Africa (still only available in French?) there is a presentation by Patrick Musavuli entitled: "Report of the evaluation on the ATCC project by the Gates Consultants and about the future of tobacco control advocacy in Africa", «Compte-rendu de l’évaluation des Consultants de GATES sur le projet ATCC, et sur l’avenir de la lutte antitabac en Afrique ». Unfortunately the summary does not provide any information about this "Gates evaluation", who did it, when nor if it is meant to be shared or kept confidential.

Angola: CTCA organizes a 'tobacco control capacity assessment' July 15-19

From reading the CTCA site we learn that 'a tobacco control capacity assessment exercise is currently under way in Angola to help the government identify the country’sability to implement  tobacco control, based on the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).  The assessment is jointly carried out by the government of Angola with technical support from the World Health organization, ( WHO) and  the Centre for Tobacco Control in Africa  ( CTCA).

IDRC and Taxation of Tobacco Products in West Africa

Revisiting the grants awarded by IDRC it is interesting to look at how Dakar based CRES has been significantly funded to research the taxation of tobacco products in West Africa. Of course many meetings were organized including one in Paris and a 3 day conference in Ougadougou. But is any specific information available on line? I have not found any -yet-.

Fabrice EBEH's presentation in Dakar (May 15) during the What future for tobacco control in Africa meeting.

Below is the summary of the presentation of Fabrice EBEH (in French 'Rapport Consultation ONG') with our translation (in English) of the main points (in yellow) with our comments (in light blue). Considering the content of Rachel Kitonyo's presentation all does not seem as well as Fabrice's summary seems to imply.

Rachel Kitonyo's presentation in Dakar (May 15) during the What future for tobacco control in Africa meeting, including our comments and questions

What to retain of Rachel's presentation (as it is summarized below in French -as the report in only available in French for now- with our partial translation in English of what we consider the key points, colored in yellow with our comments in italics and colored in pale blue).
As diplomatic and vague as the presentation is summarized, it does raise a significant number of issues about how the program was/is managed. How can the apparently badly needed changes be implemented? Or is everything going to remain the same?

Lessons from the past? A look at the project submitted by IMPACT to the Gates Foundation in 2009

While the Bloomberg Initiative runs its 14th round, I looked for the project IMPACT had submitted to the Gates Foundation in 2009, after the IDRC's debacle. I think it still contains strategic priorities that should be implemented today although they would mean a cultural revolution as far as the present and dominant practices are concerned. Are the decision makers ready and willing for such a change? Are they ready to give a chance to a very reasonable alternative way to manage grants and projects to promote tobacco control in Africa?

Don't click on the links inside the Google doc document as they don't work any longer. We'll produce a short summary asap.  

Bloomberg Initiative: recent grants awarded

The Bloomberg Initiative has recently awarded the following grants: 6 months support for the Ghana advocates ($100,463), one year media initiative in Kenya ($73,659), one year grant for advocacy support in Nigeria ($170,380) and the Nigeria Adult Tobacco Survey ($12,000), 3 months grant for advocacy support in Senegal ($31,241) for a grand total of a little less than $400,000. Applications for the next round end July 26.

Announcing Round 14 of the Bloomberg Initiative Grants Program

Announcing Round 14 of the Bloomberg Initiative Grants Program (1 July 2013)
Project Ideas are now being accepted for Round Fourteen of the Grants Program. The deadline for submission of Project Ideas is 12:00 hours, US Eastern
Standard Time (GMT -5 hours) on Friday, 26 July 2013.