Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

Is the Bloomberg Initiative-Campaign forTobacco-Free-Kids still funding projects in Africa?

According to their map of grants, as visited today, they are not. Or they just need to update the map? Or they don't care sharing this information any more? We asked them repeatedly about it. To no avail. Yet.

Gates Foundation: Senior Program Officer, Africa - Francophone Job

Could this job (application reproduced below) also include prompting tobacco control? That could help.

The first official press release about the meeting in Harare

What do you learn from this press release? Anything specific? Anything new? The participants, although no detail is provided about them by Dr Thomas Munthali, are probably tobacco control veterans, with years of activism and funding. Maybe ulterior press releases will tell us a bit more about this meeting and how the Gates Foundation millions are used? Maybe not.

The more things change: Annual coordination workshop for ACBF's sub-grantees in Harare, September 28 - October 2

Is it really necessary and useful to move all those people to Harare? What's the cost of such an "annual coordination workshop"? The "rationale"? The workshop aims to equip the sub-grantees with knowledge and skills in ACBF procedures for effective and efficient grant utilization and management. Funded by the Bill & Melinda  Gates Foundation, the tobacco control project advances evidence-based tobacco control policies in Africa.

New tobacco control law passed in Uganda

As presented on CTFK's blog.

Kenya: Judge suspends the implementation of the new tobacco control regulations

From Business Daily. The regulations, which were supposed to have been effected last month, would have compelled cigarette makers to display graphic images on packages as warnings to smokers. The regulations also ban advertising, promoting and sponsorship of tobacco and its products as well as smoking in open spaces to protect members of the public from the harmful effects of tobacco smoke.

News from the Democratic Republic of Congo

Visiting the site of the Alliance Congolaise pour le Controle du Tabac (AACT) there is one post devoted to the launch of a smokefree environment campaign  (in French) that mentions at the end the planning of an international meeting that would take place in October 7/9 in Kinshasa, financed by the Gates Foundation and involving about 100 people from 22 African countries. Is that really necessary/useful? How much is that going to cost? The front page of the site still has a typo about the French word for 'welcome"...

Gates Foundation grant of $4.6 million to the CDC Foundation for tobacco control surveys

We found the information on the CDC Foundation blog, in a post dated December 10 2014.

A grant of US$ 8,540.407 to the African Capacity Building Foundation

As we kept looking for more details about the $32 million grant awarded by the Gates Foundation, we found out the amount awarded to ACBF at the end of text posted on their website under the title Why Africa needs antitobacco interventions, dated June 1, 2015: $8.5+ million. It does not specify what are the 'target countries' nor how the global amount is divided among the programs nor how much goes to its administration.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti is the new WHO Regional Director for Africa

Acceptance Speech by Dr Matshidiso Moeti, new WHO Regional Director for Africa, at the 136th Session of the WHO Executive Board Geneva – January 2015

See below.

World No Tobacco Day 2015 in Africa

 

We know our reporting is late but the TCA blog remains a completely volunteer based service as since our creation in 2007 we have never received one cent of support for our efforts to improve communication about tobacco control in Africa despite the obvious gap in this key area. On the WHO Africa region website you'll find two presentations in English, one in Swahili but none in French or Portuguese. You'll find below the names of the people or organizations that received awards.

The opaque transparency of the Gates Foundation

Revisiting the website of the ACBF we discover this press release from the Gates Foundation dated November 19, 2014 announcing continued support for tobacco control in Africa. BUT, while this text lists the organizations the Foundation is partnering with, it does not provide any $ figure about the budgets awarded to each of them. At the same time, Cynthia Lewis writes:
You asked for more transparency in grant making, better role clarity and coordination among partners and grant makers, and direct investment in a strategic African organization that can help build capacity.
The problem (as we see it) is that she does not provide any detailed information besides the names of the 'intermediaries". Visiting, for instance, the CTFK site we were unable (as of today) to find any reference to a grant awarded in 2015 to an African country. As for the grant awarded to ACBF, we don't know it's size nor is there much detail about how it is going.

(After some more investigating we found that the ABCF grant seems to be for $8.5M, while the grant for surveys by the CDC Foundation would be $4.6M: that still leaves $18.5M unaccounted for -how much for CTFK? how much for WHO?- and there is very little detail about how all those amounts are going to be used. We should not have to go looking : why isn't all the info given upfront? That would be real transparency).

Cynthia also mentions that: As you know, we are also supporting some social marketing and behavior change work against tobacco use in Africa as a complement to important and ongoing policy work.
Well, we don't know about that. What is it about?

FCA’s AFRO coordinator working with UK's Bath university to monitor tobacco industry

FCA Coordinator for AFRO, Tih Ntiabang

Implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in most sub-Saharan Africa countries has been slow, largely due to tobacco industry interference. That was the finding of a survey of FCTC Parties included in the 2012 WHO progress report on FCTC implementation.

Now the Tobacco Control Research Group based at the University of Bath (UK), has launched a monitoring and accountability project that aims to change that trend.

FCA’s Regional Coordinator, Tih Ntiabang, will be devoting a large portion of his time to the initiative.

For those of us who cannot attend the 16th World Conference for Tobacco or Health: a TV program?

As you can read below a few segments should be produced and aired every day. We'll keep you posted.

The World Conference for Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) 2015 is partnering with the international film and broadcasting company, WebsEdge, to bring ‘Tobacco OR Health TV’ to the 16^th WCTOH.

'Tobacco OR Health TV' will be an onsite conference television channel featuring a new episode daily, screened around the venue, as well as in selected guest hotel rooms and online here and here on youTube.

Nonguebzanga Maxime Compaoré is a new FCA board member (representing the EURO region)

My name is Nonguebzanga Maxime Compaoré. I’m a citizen of Norway with roots in Burkina Faso, West Africa. I am privileged to be an FCA Board member representing the EURO Region. 
For the last four years, I have worked as a Special Advisor for International Affairs at the Norwegian Cancer Society (NCS). I am tasked with liaising with NCS’s partners, and coordinating the organisation’s international partnership projects and activities.

(from the FCTC site)

From FCA's website, Derek Yach's assessment of WHO FCTC at 10

The WHO FCTC at 10: progress has been mixed

 

By Derek Yach
Executive Director, Vitality Institute; former Executive Director, WHO NCDs*

The FCTC is an ambitious approach to tackling the world’s most preventable health problem. It was built on solid evidence of what worked best and supported strongly by the IMF, the World Bank, UNICEF, leading pharmaceutical companies and international health NGOs.

Progress has been mixed and the early passion and cohesion of the coalition has dissipated.

It was relatively easy to get laws on the books – but is proving tough to translate these into effective actions without financial resources, expanded leadership and a sharper ability to adapt the FCTC provisions to the reality of diverse countries.

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.

Looking back at the African news published in 2014 on the CTFK blog

Visiting CTFK's blog, Unfiltered, I have found 3 posts about Africa.
The first one on January 29, about the situation in Indonesia and Africa, the second on July 7 about Uganda's first Adult smoking survey, the third on December 2nd about the first Adult smoking survey in Kenya.

CTCA Phase 2 (2015 -2017): 5 target countries

Details here

$32 million to implement tobacco control programs

The press release posted on the ACBF website is below. Details remain very sketchy on how this budget will be managed. There is reference to a communiqué by the Gates Foundation but we were unable to find it. 12 countries appear to have been selected for funding. What about the rest? How much information will be made public? The the three year and $32 million grant was announced in July 2014 on the ACBF site. ACBF nor the Gates Foundation answered our requests for more details.

ACBF & Gates Foundation partners lay groundwork for next phase of tobacco control  

       

Harare, Zimbabwe

25 Nov, 2014

The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and Campaign for Tobacco Free kids (CTFK) are advancing coordination of the Tobacco Control Project across Africa funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The three Gates Foundation partners met from the 24^th-25^th of November and agreed that coordination and effective implementation of tobacco control will take a prominent place in the second phase of the project.

During the two day sessions, the partners agreed on an effective mechanism for work at country level, developed a joint reporting tool and agreed to develop a monthly calendar of key activities as well as to hold regular calls to discuss their plans and progress at country and regional levels.  

The meeting served as a platform for the partners to gain a better appreciation of each organization's role in tobacco control; share work plans and deliverables as well as priority countries of focus and partners at country and regional levels.

ACBF, as the host of the first coordination meeting, recommended that the partners build their relationship for tobacco control based on trust, transparency and communication. They were also encouraged to build on each other’s comparative advantage and competence. These outcomes will ensure coordination for effective implementation of tobacco control in Africa by avoiding duplication of activities and mismanagement of resources.

Last week, the Gates Foundation officially released a communiqué announcing their commitment of more than US $32 million to support governments and Civil Society Organizations to implement tobacco control policies and programs in order to reduce tobacco use.

Under this funding, ACBF will support strategic grant-making and capacity building of the Centre for Tobacco Control in Africa,  the University of Cape Town and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to advance evidence-based Tobacco Control policies in Africa including tobacco taxation, advertising bans, graphic warning labels, and smoke-free environments. The CSOs will be drawn from Uganda, Kenya, Mauritania, Botswana, Ethiopia, Senegal, Nigeria, and Ghana, Niger, Benin, Gabon and the Gambia.

That's five "big' countries (Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana), two 'medium" Niger and Senegal, 5 small (Mauritania, Botswana, Benin, Gabon).

Representing ACBF were Bakary Kone and Patience Jambaya (as seen on the pictures)

 

2 year CTFK's grant for 7 Francophone countries (2014-2015)

Revisiting the grants database we discover this $300.000 grant awarded in July 2013 to the Association pour la défense des Droits des Consommateurs involving 7 countries: Chad, Niger, Burkina, Cote D’Ivoire, Guinea, Mauritania, and Burundi.