Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

Tobacco in Africa

From The Guardian of October 2014, this article by Rachel Rose Jackson, we had missed. Visit the University of Bath's Tobacco Control Research Group, Tobacco Tactics site.

Looking back at the World Lung Foundation African News in 2014

Five stories in 2014 on the site of the World Lung Foundation: on December 2nd about a mass media campaign in Kenya, on October 16 about images provided for free for graphic pack warnings in Africa, on September 8 about a regional media campaign in Francophone countries (see the clip about a former smoker with mouth cancer, but only 308 views on YouTube), May 29 about progress made in Africa, March 18 about a regional workshop for six countries in Kampala about counter-marketing, February 19 about the first mass media campaign in Gambia, November 21 2013 about the Africa Tobacco Report published by the American Cancer Society.

Looking back at the African news stories published in 2014 on the FCTC' site

Six posts concern Africa in the news published on the FCTC's site (I have included one published in December 2013).
Let us start with December 11 2013 about the tax hike in Niger, then in 2014 there are posts on March 16 about the new law passed in Senegal, on April 14 about the AFRO Shadow report for Senegal, on May 14 about a training workshop in Madagascar, on May 29 about a Voice of America program titled Why is smoking increasing in Africa, on November 1st about Hellen Neima (from Uganda) participating in COP 6. Looking for more I did not find anything else but I noticed this post of November 2013 about the 2012 African shadow reports wit the title: Lack of political will, awareness... The more things change... and this interesting one also of November 2013 about Uganda and Tobacco Industry Interference.

November 24-25: Coordination for effective Tobacco Control in Africa, in Harare.

I found this by chance while doublechecking the information provided on the Gates Foundation site. There is still no mention of the amount of the grant awarded to the ABCF which is strange as usually (apparently) they disclose the amount involved. It was on the site of ABCF. Is this meeting really necessary? How transparent is it going to be? How much will it cost? For what results? What do all the other local/national advocates really think? What chance do they have to be heard? Who is in charge of the project at ABCF?

November 24- 25     

Coordination for effective Tobacco Control in Africa 

Harare, Zimbabwe

The tobacco control partner coordination meeting will be held in Harare at the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) secretariat on 24th to 25th November 2014. Three institutions namely; ACBF, WHO (AFRO and Headquarters) and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK) will meet to discuss how to improve coordination for Tobacco Control in Africa under the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funding for Africa.

Susan Desmond-Hellman: The Gates Foundation needs more transparency

The Chronicle of Philanthropy tells us about a talk delivered by Susan Desnond-Hellman where shew mentions the need for more transparency and listening to feedback. We wish this would not be only wishful thinking as far as the grants awarded by the Gatews Foundation to promote tobacco control in Africa are concerned.  but a very small part of the Foundation's activity but why should they be exempt of the transparency requirement?

What are foundations for?

A critical analysis of the role of 'Big Philanthropy' and democracy. By Gara LaMarche in Democracy.

What's left of the promotion of tobacco control in Africa by The Gates Foundation? Not much

Visiting the site of the ACBF (African Capacity Building Foundation) that was awarded a 3 year grant (amount not available) one can see that the scope of the interventions has been drastically reduced, focusing on the CTCA and the University of Cape Town. Only six countries are 'targeted': Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda. 0 information about this grant is available on the site of the Gates Foundation (that I could find). The more it changes... It's sad to see such a waste.
The prospects don't look much better from the Bloomberg Initiative/CTFK where I have not seen any new grant recently awarded. When there is no clear strategy and no real leadership...

CTCA: What's next?

What's the relationship between CTCA and ABCF going to be? The respective leaders met in August in Kampala. What's next? What about the other organizations/groups that used to be funded by the Gates Foundation?

Tobacco vs Ebola

A fascinating story by Janet Patton, first published in The Lexington Herald-Leader and reprinted in the Seattle Times. where I saw it.

Bloomberg/CTFK: Grants awarded country by country (updated 2007- July 2014). Who got what?

Grants awarded by Bloomberg Initiative/CTFK, country by country and year by year (as of July 28, 2014). What do you think? Is this an equal distribution? Are there 'favorites'?

4 grants from the Bloomberg Initiative to Ghana, Togo and Uganda

Visiting the Bloomberg Initiative's site we discover 4 grants awarded in May, June and july 2014. All are provided to groups that were already regularly funded in Togo ($100,293), Ghana ($80K) and Uganda ($32K and $75K). See the details below.

African Capacity Building Foundation chosen by the Gates Foundation

'The Harare based African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) recently entered into a strategic partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through which ACBF will advance evidence-based tobacco control policy in Africa through support to African civil organizations (CSOs). ACBF will serve as a strategic grant maker, capacity builder, and effectively coordinate with others working in tobacco control on the continent. The deliverables of the Foundation under this assignment include grant making and capacity building of the Centre for Tobacco Control in Africa (CTCA), a regional center of excellence in tobacco control based in Kampala, Uganda and to civil service organizations operating in the tobacco control sector in Africa." They are looking for a 'Consultant Program Officer' and an administrative assistant.
The deadline to submit an application is July 27. I have not yet found information about the budget awarded by the Gates Foundation.
While researching for this post I found this very interesting interview of Frannie Léautier who used to be ACBF's Executive Secretary, about evaluation and monitoring results. Since December 2013 ACBF's Executive Secretary is Emmanuel Nnadozie.

Uganda: US aid cancelled because of anti-gay repression.

The White House announced cuts in aid to Uganda. Potential consequences for the tobacco control programs based in Uganda?

World Day Against Child Labor

Courtesy of the Tobacco Industry.

BAT's wishes for World No Tobacco Day: e-cigarettes as harm reduction

Here (and below): e-cigarettes but without taxes or marketing restrictions.

Straight Talk Africa - Voice of America and tobacco control in Africa

From FCA. What audience? Just curious.

NewYork Review of Books: 2 articles about Uganda

The New York Review of Books published in April 2014, 2 articles by Helen Epstein: Murder in Uganda and The General Challenges the Dictator. Anything to be concerned about?

What communication strategy for promoting tobacco control in Africa? Can the African Media Initiative be part of it?

Here is an ad for a communications officer position with the Gates Foundation. How do you think tobacco control could/should be part of this job? What could/should be a global communication strategy to promote tobacco control in Africa? How could tobacco control be part of the African Media Initiative who just got a new CEO, Eric Chinje?

Zambia: ITC report: Zambia needs to increase tobacco prices and anti-tobacco campaigns

Read the ITC press release. A report released today at a World No Tobacco Day event in Lusaka, Zambia, reveals that Zambia needs to address key gaps in its tobacco control policies in order to combat the increasing tobacco epidemic in Africa.  The report, entitled “ITC Zambia National Report: Findings from the Wave 1 (2012) Survey” was produced by the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (the ITC Project), centered at the University of Waterloo, in partnership with the University of Zambia and the Zambian Ministry of Health. 

World No Tobacco Day 2014 awards - the winners for Africa

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 Awards, World No Tobacco Day Awards, and in 2014, two WHO Director-General's Special Recognition Certificates.
Here are the African Region awardees
Dr Kangoye Larba Théodore, Burkina Faso
The House of Peoples Parliament, Federal Democratic Republi of Ethiopia
Ms Dorcas Jepsongol Kiptui, Republic of Kenya
Mr Badarou  Agaly Maiga, Republic of Mali
Professor Abdoulaye Diagne, Republic of Senegal 
Mr Vuyile Dlamini, Kingdom of Swaziland

tobaccoctrl in Nigeria

The tobaccoctrl site is 'cool' but how effective is it. All our best wishes anyway.

What future for ATCA?

ATCA held a strategic planning workshop in Lomé (Togo) for 3 days (April 2-4). They had the support of an anonymous consultant (but for his first name, Stéphane) from the Canadian consulting firm Universalia, apparently without previous experience in tobacco control.
If you can understand what the results were, please tell me (see below the document provided on their site). No financial information is provided, like where is the funding going to come from? From the Gates Foundation again? From ACS?

What's next for the CTCA?

WHO received in December 2009, $9.994.093 for a 5 year project centered around the creation of a 'hub'.
The search for the country where the 'hub' would be installed was organized by the same DC based firm that was put in charge of its design and 'independent' evaluation. The announced budget for the 'hub' was to be about $3.5 million (less than 35% of the global grant) according to the document published in April 2010. The CTCA was inaugurated on... November 1, 2011 (the director had been recruited in September 2011).
The 'first phase' of the WHO project is supposed to end, according to this document (at the bottom) in two months, in July 2014. What's next? Is the Gates Foundation going to continue its funding? at what level? for how long?

About the evaluation of the African Tobacco Control Consortium/ACS grant/project and what's next?

During a meeting a year ago in Dakar the existence of an evaluation of the ATCC/ACS grant by consultants for the Gates Foundation was mentioned but without any additional information. While we still don't know the details of the evaluation we found out, one year later, about its authors: EnCompass LLC of Washington DC, a group that also helped WHO design the Kampala based CTCA and is in charge of its evaluation (see below). As the fate of the Consortium looks uncertain, what's next? What happened to the RFQ posted in November by the Gates Foundation? Contacted, the Gates Foundation did not reply. As usual, everything remains secret.

Bloomberg Initiative/CTFK: Grants 2007-2014. Who got what.

Grants awarded by Bloomberg Initiative/CTFK, country by country and year by year (as of July 28, 2014). What do you think?

Bloomberg Initiative: Thank you, the search function is now fixed :)

You can now search again the grants. That helps while I am updating the data for the third edition of Honest Feedback, soon to be available in print (on demand) and as e-book via Kindle/Amazon. The second edition was published in November 2011.

Workshop in Madagascar

You know what we think about the cost effectiveness of workshops but here is the report from FCA.

How to waste $100 millon+

From the New Yorker, the story about the $100 million+ grant Mark Zuckerberg spent to improve schools in Newark and how it failed.

 

 

The case for philanthropy criticism?

From The Atlantic, a very touchy subject, especially when you depend on philantropic funding. Does it apply to tobacco control funding in Africa? Does anybody dare expressing any wish for changes, ask for public evaluation and transparency? But of course, speaking out can bring personal negative consequences, as explained in this opinion in Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Madagascar: 3 day training workshop

From the FCA's website. How cost effective is the training workshop practice that is still prevalent? In our internet age, is it really necessary to move (and host) people ("experts") that way to share information and build capacity? How is the information made available beyond the workshop's audience? What's different from the september 2013 workshop? Is that voluntourism or expertourism?

How cigarettes are taxed

Interesting map posted on the CTCA site (as we reported in November). Right on target for World No Tobacco Day 2014!

2013/2014 IDRC grant to CRES to improve taxation policies in West Africa

IDRC provided CRES with a $378 grant in June 2013 to promote improving the taxation of tobacco products in West Africa. A one day workshop was organized in February 2014  in Ivory Coast, bringing together parliamentarians from 14 of the 15 countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). More infos on the site of CRES  about this meeting, but only in French. To get the reports country by country, click on 'documents'.

2013/2014 IDRC grant about taxation and smuggling in Eritrea

This $79K grant aims at assessing the impact of tobacco taxation, smuggling, and street vending on consumption, and its implication for tobacco control in Eritrea.

World No Tobacco Day 2014: Raise taxes on tobacco

May 31st is World No Tobacco Day.

Philamplify: honest feedback to improve philanthropy

Philamplify is an interesting initiative by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy to promote honest feedback to improve philanthropy. As for now it does not seem to include international projects but it is still worth examining.

Welcome to Susan Desmond-Hellman, new CEO of the Gates Foundation

Susan Desmond-Hellman is replacing Jeff Raikes as CEO of the Gates Foundation. Will that mean any changes for the tobacco control program and especially the projects in Africa? I found this interesting Fortune interview of Susan with Melinda Gates but unfortunately you need to subscribe to read the whole thing :( 
You can follow Susan on Facebook and twitter

A link to the Humanopshere presentation of Susan.

 

Voluntourism?

Do Tobacco Control Advocates succumb to voluntourism (as discussed in the New York Times). In our internet age I often wonder about the real use of many (costly) trips/meetings under the pretense of helping out. Of course there are always great group pictures, but what else?

New website for the Alliance Congolaise de Controle du Tabac: still with problems

10 days after our previous visit, the ACCT website is still incomplete (and with a few typos on the homepage).

Bloomberg Initiative: The search function of "what we fund' still broken

10 days after we signaled that the search function was broken, it still is!

RDC: a website for the Alliance Congolaise pour le Contrôle du Tabac

Considering the technical issues of the new ACCT site (click for instance on the presentation or nos projets sections), one wonders why they did not choose to use existing ready to use blog platforms like Blogspot or Wordpress along with a Facebook page instead of trying (and failing for now) to master Joomla. There is also a spelling problem with the position of the e and u in accueil/welcome. Easy to fix :) All our best wishes.

Bloomberg Initiative 2014: 4 grants to DRC, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda.

The Bloomberg Initiative has funded 4 projects in Africa since the beginning of 2014, in DRC ($80K), Kenya ($60K), Uganda ($18K), Ghana ($20K) for a total of $178K. All are linked to support passing legislation or implementing existing regulations.

Senegal: the new Tobacco Control Act has been promulgated

We don't have yet the detailed text and to be implemented "implementation decrees" ("décrets d'application") are still needed. Sometimes they take a long time to be issued.

FCTC 2013 Africa Shadow Reports

FCTC 'Shadow Reports" provide a real picture of the situation in each country. As you'll see implementation is often a problem.

Mike Bloomberg: It's an exciting time to be in Africa

Mike Bloomberg during his first visit to South Africa. Of particular interest is the launch of the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa.

The truth is out: Science misused by Uganda Government

All our support for the Ugandan scientists who spoke out.

Mike Bloomberg's Annual Letter on Philanthropy

Here.

Gay rights in Africa: How to approach the issue?

How to approach the issue?by Udoka Okafor

How much is Makere University involved in the anti-gay legislation in Uganda?

Looking at the press release presenting the support of 'scientists' in favor of the anti-gay legislation in Uganda one cannot but notice the presence of several faculty members of Makerere University. In this context can organisations concerned with human rights keep collaborating and funding Makerere University? What do international funders of Makerere University intend to do? Nothing? A recent summary of the situation, an opinon from the Kenyan Star and the official Ugandan position according to Reuters that also mentions Uganda is not the only African country with anti-gay legislation.

Kenya: 3 Bloomberg Initiative grants (for a total of $260,077) to promote smoke-free workplaces and tobacco control policies

A one year grant of $100,484 to the African Women's Alliance for Tobacco Control to promote smoke-free workplaces, $68,254 for the Kenya Tobacco Control Alliance, $91,339 for the Tobacco Control Board. Total awarded = $260,077.

DRC: a $79,965 Bloomberg Initiative grant to promote Tobacco Control Legislation

From a recent visit to the Bloomberg Initiative website we found out that the Alliance Congolaise De Contrôle Du Tabac was awarded a one year grant of $80K to promote tobacco control legislation.