Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

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?

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.

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?

American Cancer Society Scientific Report warns about worsening smoking epidemic in Africa

From a note posted on the Global Tobacco control Forum on Facebook (are you a member?) by Evan Blecher that pointed to the November 11 ACS press release (also below). Unfortunately the link to the full report did not work but it will certainly be fixed asap. Just so you know if you try right away. You can find the document (Google doc) here

Let us do the numbers for the last seven years (2007-2013)

As it's grey and cold today I have decided to look at the relevant numbers for the grants awarded to promote tobacco control in Africa during the period 2007 to November 2013. I mostly computed the data for the grants awarded by CTFK for the Bloomberg Initiative, comparing them with the grants awarded by the Gates Foundation.

The African Tobacco Control Consortium

From the ACS page devoted to the Consortium. What's happening now?

Another useless (but costly) trip

Visiting the blog of the American Cancer Society I find this pathetically and shockingly empty post (without forgetting to thank the funder of such useless trips). The example of what should stop. There is zero information about what the eventual contribution of Lekan O.A. Ayo-Yusuf has been. 

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?

Rachel Kitonyo to leave the Consortium by June 30

Rachel Kitonyo, ATCC's Programs Director, shares this information in an email (see below) received yesterday. It raises (at least for us) a few questions as Rachel had been very instrumental in the creation and management of the Consortium. How will this departure impact the management of ATCC? That remains to be seen as well as the potential changes that could occur following the still mysterious 'evaluation' made by Gates Foundation's advisors as mentioned briefly in the report ( see page 6, only in French for now) about the May 15 meeting "What future for tobacco control in Africa" that took place in Dakar. Rachel's presentation at this meeting is summarized on page 5 and 6.

What is the management overhead for the grants awarded to promote tobacco control in Africa?

This recent article about overhead at big charities invites the question about the management overhead. For instance, what is ACS doing for their apparent very substantial share  ($1.5 million+?) of the Gates Foundation grant ($7 to 8 million)?

What about the grant awarded by the Gates Foundation to the American Cancer Society?

There is very little to find on the site of the Gates Foundation, except that the amount awarded has risen by 1 million (probably from the interests) from $7 to $8 million. What has been/is done with the money? Here is the page devoted to the African Tobacco Control Consortium by ACS that says it contributes 'significant financial and human resources to this initiative' but does not provide any number. As we recall, the project managers (including ACS) were supposed to match the funds given by the Gates Foundation (see their LOI, point V). Here is a link to the African Tobacco Control Resource Center. 

We could not find any detailed and updated financial documents.

FCA trains African NGOs in shadow reporting

See the information as posted on the site of the FCTC about the shadow report training that took place in Dakar on March 7-8, 2013.

One more big meeting: is it the most effective strategy?

ACS + WHO Afro and all the usual main donor organizations have brought together representatives of 22 countries to share their tobacco control experience and expertise. They met for 2 days. What was achieved? At what cost? What was achieved at the various previous similar meetings? Is this the most effective strategy? When will the next meeting take place? At what cost? With what results? Beside a significant budget for travel and hospitality?

Feedback remains a keyword for Bill Gates

Feedback remains a keyword for Bill Gates, here in this opinion for the Wall Street Journal. But how does it apply (if it does) to the tobacco control grants? Here the comment from Humanosphere.

The budget awarded by the Gates Foundation to ACS-Consortium increases again

When we last looked at the budget (in December 2011) it was $7.8788.847. As of today it is $8.015.471, an increase of $130.624.

Still no detailed information about how this grant is used.

Evaluation of the tobacco control programs in Africa?

A meeting has taken place in Atlanta at the end of October to look into evaluating tobacco control programs in Africa? Quis custodiet ipsos custodies? Any guarantee of an independent process? ie not having the funders and the people receiving the money self-evaluating themselves? Any hint of the creation of objective benchmarks and a simple scorecard like the one adopted for the EU in 2007?

USA: Deceptive Telemarketing Linked to Big Charities

From Bloomberg News.

Grant makers and media

This article is about the situation in the US but what about the situation in Africa and more precisely what is the grant makers strategy to raise the visibility and awareness about tobacco control issues in African countries/media? Do they even have one? Shouldn't they have one considering the millions involved? Subsidiary question: who is aware of the most recent grant awarded by the Gates Foundation for innovative programs in Africa? Do you know where to look?

Workshops in South Africa

ACS (with Gates Foundation funding) organized two workshops. One for Botswana advocates and one for "emerging researchers". I am not sure about how cost effective they are. Another post on the ACS blog looks at cancer care in Togo: we have nothing.

Bloomberg's Initiative strategy in Africa in 2012?

While staff changes at CTFK occured in 2012, the level of the grants awarded (as of today) has been fairly low: $152.724 for projects in 3 countries: Ghana to promote pictorial warnings, Cameroon and Togo to support the enactment of strict regulations. Compared to the previous levels of funding this is very small. The same probably goes for the American Cancer Society that manages the millions provided by the Gates Foundation but does not provide any detailed budget.

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.

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).

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)

Looking back at 2011

A subjective selection of significant posts among the 160 published in 2011 (+ 40 in French on Vers une Afrique Sans Tabac). Sorry but no systematic links (too long to do).

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.

From $7 million to $7,884,847: the amount of the grant awarded in 2009 by the Gates Foundation to the African Consortium has increased by 12.64%.

While the initial amount awarded in 2009 was $7 million, the amount now mentioned on the Foundation's site is $7,884,847 (+12.64%). It's good news, but how and why this increase? Does it represent the interests of the invested money?

Congo-Brazzaville: a training workshop organized by the African Consortium

Read the article written by Tih. Why didn't the participants have a copy of the existing law? Isn't it published? The same questions apply to the laws passed in Burkina, Chad and Niger. Why are those texts not available on line? They have to be published somewhere and it should be possible to scan them and post them on line? 

The 10 countries the Consortium works with

The Africa Tobacco Control Consortium works in 10 countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa. These countries include Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Zambia, The Gambia, Gabon, Senegal, Uganda and Congo Brazzaville. You can learn more about our project activities in these countries. For update on our project in the individual countries, please click on the country name below: Updates on our In-Country Projects

Projects in Republic of Benin   ( 0 Articles ) Projects in Botswana   ( 0 Articles ) Projects in Algeria   ( 0 Articles ) Projects in Cameroun   ( 0 Articles ) Projects in Zambia   ( 0 Articles ) Projects in Sierra Leone   ( 0 Articles ) Projects in Gambia   ( 0 Articles ) Projects in Congo Brazaville   ( 0 Articles ) Projects in Senegal   ( 0 Articles ) Projects in Gabon   ( 0 Articles ) Projects in Uganda   ( 0 Articles )

 

Relevé chronologique des subventions accordées depuis 2007 dans les pays francophones

Avec l'arrivée de la fin de l'année 2011, nous avons effectué un relevé des principaux financements accordés depuis 2007 à la lutte contre le tabagisme en Afrique francophone par l'Initiative Bloomberg ($1.437.146) et la Fondation Gates ($907.158) pour un total de $2.344.304
Il conviendrait d'ajouter à ces sommes les crédits obtenus pas l'OTAF, les "petites" subventions de la FCA et de l'ACS (avant la création du Consortium), les subventions de la Norwegian Cancer Society.

About how the Gates Foundation partners with journalists

Here is an interesting post by Reuters blogger Felix Salmon. I wish the Gates Foundation would realize that compensating African journalists to write stories (and produce radio shows as radio is such an important medium in Africa) about tobacco control would be the most cost effective way to raise the awareness and support advocacy about those issues.

Global Smoke-Free Worksite Challenge: any initiative in Africa?

It comes from the Clinton Global Initiative via the Unfiltered blog of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. But for now I only see one pdf document without any contact. Anybody active in Africa for this challenge?

The WSJ health blog does not offer any link either.

What happened to the Global Smokefree Partnership?

Visiting the site of the Global Smokefree Partnership after reading Tih's article about the slow growth of smokefree places in Africa it looks like nothing has been posted since november 2010. GSP, managed by ACS had received a grant from IDRC to help ATSA teams in 6 countries: Cameroon, Eritrea, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal, Zambia. What happened to this project? What happened to GSP? 

Small grants are beautiful, but are there any?

This post is about the effectiveness of "small" grants ($5.000/$10.000 and under). What happened to small grants in the strategy of the present programs? 

American Cancer Society awarded $451,720 by the Gates Foundation (in October 2010)

Visiting the site of the Gates Foundation, I discover that the American Cancer Society was awarded in October 2010 a grant of $451,720, apparently relative to tobacco control in Africa. My guess is it was used (in part?) to fund the conference in Johannesburg. Was that a wise investment considering the Consortium (managed by ACS for $300K per year, $1.5 million total for 5 years) now tells us there is not enough money available to work with all African countries?

ATSA final report from the Johannesburg's conference: still many unanswered questions

A report (pdf format) about the Johannesburg's conference is available (only in English for now) on the site of the African Consortium. Our requests to know the budget of this conference that was funded by a special grant from the Gates Foundation have remained unanswered. Why is that when the grant funding another tobacco control conference is made public? Could we be shocked by the amount? The report does not provide any numbers or detailed budget about the various past and ongoing projects, nor a serious independent evaluation. While there has never been more money available to promote tobacco control in Africa one can still read that "funding is insufficient". Where is all the money going? Don't ask, don't tell. This practice seems very different from the principles recently stated by Bill Gates himself about transparency, cost-effectivenes assessment and impact evaluation.

Indicators for a transparent management scorecard

Following up on the need for more transparency (and accountability) that has been at the core of this blog, I have listed 10 indicators that I believe would be helpful to assess how organizations are performing. Here they are:

1. Names, bios of the staff and contact email (program, project managers, all staff involved)
2. Detailed annual report explaining the activities
3. Detailed annual operational budget (easy to find and providing key info, see below)
4. Budget for staff and consultants (staff administrative costs)
5. Budget for travel and hospitality (including monthly update and yearly detailed list)
6. Transparency blog providing regular detailed information about the progress of each program/project/grant
7. Open selection process for grant applications (all applications available)
8. Transparency requirement for grantees and sub-grantees (including the 7 first items of this scorecard)
9. Establishment of a benchmark scorecard (baseline) for the project, updated yearly to allow evaluation
10. Willingness to answer questions and provide information (for big institutions, Access to Information person and procedure)

What do you think the score is for each organization involved in promoting tobacco control in Africa?

 

Scorecards and the importance of counting for transparency, accountability, fairness and effectiveness: tools for the Gates Foundation?

The governance and development blog of the Worldbank refers in this post to this very interesting document  (pdf) about the importance of counting and budget transparency, something that does not apply to tobacco control grants to Sub-Sahara Africa.

Senegal: Methodological workshop on tobacco taxation in West Africa

The CRES has hosted in Dakar a three day workshop (February 22-24) on tobacco taxation in West Africa. Among the participants, Evan Blecher (ACS), Sylviane Ratte (Union), Ebeh Kodjo (ATCA), Noureiny Tcha Kondor (African Consortium), Greg Hallen (IDRC).

Johannesburg's meeting: Day 3 in the ACS blog

Here is the post about the last day of the Johannesburg's meeting. Was anything concrete and specific decided? We could not tell. Can you? The taboo question we cannot resist to ask, is: How much did that cost?

Does Gates funding of media taint objectivity?

That's the title of this article in the Seattle Times by Sandi Daughton and Kristi Heim. What do you think?

Day 2 of the ATSA meeting in Johannesburg - on Cancerblogs

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

Day 1 of the ATSA meeting in Johannesburg - on the ATCC site

A summary of the first day of the ATSA meeting on the ATCC site.

Day 1 of the ATSA meeting in Johannesburg - on Cancerblogs

The blog of the ACS has this post of the first day of the ATSA meeting. 

A special grant from the Gates Foundation funded the meeting in Johannesburg

There is no mention of the amount of the grant, nor is it posted (at this time) on the Gates Foundation website where the last tobacco control grant mentioned is about a conference financed in Oakland. The first grant allocated in the program, in 2007, was for a conference in Oxford.

Source: January 2011 issue of the African Consortium's Newlsetter.

The program of the ATSA meeting in Johannesburg (February 1-3 2011)

Read the program (Google doc.)

African Tobacco Control Consortium: The January 2011 Newsletter

The January 2011 Newsletter is now available. It announces the 4 projects awarded "small" grants (from Algeria, Bénin, Botswana and Zambia), the organization of the big ATSA meeting in Johannesburg in early February and the names of the members of a committee of researchers.

Gates Foundation: Guide to Actionable Measurement. How to evaluate progress?

The Guide to Actionable Measurement (pdf) is a document published by the Gates Foundation about how they try to evalate their grantee's work. Does it apply to the tobacco control program for Africa?

Where does the tobacco control community stand now about IDRC?

One year ago it looked like IDRC was under a boycott because of the presence at its helm of Barbara McDougall  a former Imperial Tobacco Director. One year later the World Health Organization and the American Cancer Society organize in Johannesburg a meeting to praise IDRC's work. What gives?  Has the conflict of interest that was seemed so shocking disappeared? Is an 11 months suspension an adequate sentence and is IDRC now to be reintegrated fully within the tobacco control community? What independent evaluation has been done and published to explain how IDRC has used the Gates Foundation money? Is IDRC now an acceptable partner to promote tobacco control?