Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

Up in smoke? Global Tobacco Control Advocacy and local mobilization in Africa

Up in smoke? Global Tobacco Control Advocacy and local mobilization in Africa, is a paper by Amy S Patterson and Elizabeth Gil, published in Oxford's International Affairs. Unfortunately, only the abstract is accessible for free. To access it for 24 hour, would cost you $45! I doubt many of our readers can make such an investment. I was allowed to read it via a friend who had access. It is a discussion on how much the big donors (like Gates and Bloomberg) influence/control the type of advocacy organized locally and how they could be wrong. Comments from advocates would be interesting, if they were willing to comment. It's hard to compare countries. Here the focus is on Ghana, Rwanda and Tanzania. I'll leave at that for now. Time for Le grande Thanksgiving, le jour de merci donnant... thank you Art. Rereading this post in 2021 and looking for Amy Patterson, I find this opinion she wrote for the Washington Post for WNTD 2021. She seems to miss the fact there is no difference between Bloomberg/GF and WHO as they are the main funders of WHO.

$5,992,617 to supply Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with "country specific data"

Visiting the Gates Foundation site I find this new grant (October 2019) to Development Gateway. If you are curious about other grants awarded to tobacco control projects concerning Africa, click here.

Projects presently funded by CTFK in Africa: only one left (as of now) in 2019? ACBF now the main source?

Go and visit the database of grants awarded by CTFK. I found only a project in Chad.

Maybe/probably most of the grants are now awarded by the African Capacity Building Foundation, as presented in this September 2018 video? Zero detailed information about the amounts involved and the projects themselves. At the very end they say they intend to fund more projects in more countries but that's all. The ACBF provided us  with 4 pdf documents you can access via the urls below:

document 1 , document 2 , document 3, document 4

Rendez-vous with Marie Maurisse

Cyberinterview with Marie Maurisse, author of the investigative report The blazing success of Swiss cigarettes in Africa.

Made in Switzerland's cigarettes sold in Africa more toxic

This investigation by Marie Maurisse that won an investigation award from Public Eye focused on Morocco shows that cigarettes made in Switzerland and sold in Africa by Big Tobacco companies are more toxic (more nicotine, more tar) than those sold in Europe.

As the end of the granting period approaches for the $32 million awarded by the Gates Foundation in 2014

As the end of the 3 year granting period approaches for most of the $32 million awarded by the Gates Foundation in 2014, we have revisited the sites of various grantees. We have found little about what was done. As for now there does not look like there is -yet- a synthetic and detailed evaluation. Where were those S32 million invested? How exactly were the $8.5 million to ACBF used? What surveys were developed by the CDC Foundation for $4.5? What about the rest, ie $18.5 million? How much for WHO? What else? Any ideas? Here is the link to our initial post on this mega-grant, where Cynthia Lewis explained their intent. She did mention a demand for more transparency. We certainly agree but how is it going to apply to those grants and what's next?

 

 

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"...

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.

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)

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

Details here

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.

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...

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

From FCA. What audience? Just curious.

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?

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.

Chronology of Bloomberg Initiative grants for African Countries 2007-2013

The total of the grants allocated in 7 years (2007-2013) by the Bloomberg Initiative as of December 22, 2013 amounts to $ 6.313.409. The average is $901.915 per year.

Africa's aid mess

Article by author Paul Theroux for Barron's.

How cigarettes are taxed

Interesting map posted on the CTCA site

Looking for data about smoking prevalence in African countries

You can try to search the interactive map provided by the CDC but you'll find almost nothing for African countries. The few youth surveys are quite old.
Why such a lack of very basic data? 
Apparently there was a youth survey in various sub-sahara countries in 2008, as reported on my the very blog I once started about prevalence but the links don't work any longer :(

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

WHO FCTC reporting and implementation database

Here allows you to read the implementation reports, county by country.

Ibrahim Index of African Governance

"Best and worst" countries according to the Ibrahim Index of African Governance.

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 Gates Foundation looks for an organization to support and strengthen tobacco control in Africa

This ad was posted on the site of the Center for Tobacco Control in Africa (based in Kampala). The deadline to apply is today!  November 8!  What organizations are going to apply? to serve as a strategic grant maker, capacity builder, and effectively coordinate with others working in tobacco control on the continent? Several existing (competing) groups are presently trying to do that. Strangely, once again, despite claiming to engage the whole continent the proposal is in fact much more narrow:The grantee organization will support work in 5-10 countries in Africa .
Another interesting (perplexing?) remark is Africa Tobacco control expertise is preferred but not required as a tobacco control expert could be hired as part of the investment.
What do you think? Is there any chance of a different organizing strategy being funded or are we going to see more of the same?
Duration of grant: 3 years, starting in 2014.
No budget amount if mentioned nor any mention of the capacity to operate in different languages (except English) despite the fact that the lack of French fluency has been, still is a handicap for all leading groups.

 

Regional Workshop on Policy Coordination for Tobacco Control to Address TC Coordination Challenges 16-18 October 2013 Kigali

The countries that  participated are: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea Equatorial, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. My question is: how were those countries selected? why? by whom? How much did the workshop cost? What about a cybermeeting instead of moving all those people? Information published by CTCA

List of African Countries by Population Wikipedia

The link to Wikipedia (in millions).

1. Nigeria: 177, 2. Ethiopia: 86, 3. Egypt: 84, 4. Democratic Republic of Congo: 74

5. South Africa: 53, 6. Tanzania: 46, 7. Kenya:43  8. Algeria: 38  9. Uganda: 35

10. Sudan: 35  11. Morocco: 33, 12. Ghana: 26,  13. Mozambique: 24, 14. Ivory Coast: 24

15. Madagascar: 21, 16. Cameroon: 21, 17. Angola: 21, 18. Niger: 17, 19. Burkina Faso: 17

20. Mali: 16,  21. Malawi: 16,  22. Zambia: 14,  23. Senegal: 13,  24. Zimbvabwe: 13

25. Chad: 12,  26. Guinea: 11,  27. Tunisia: 10,  28. Rwanda: 10,  29. South Sudan: 10

30. Benin: 9,  31. Somalia: 9,  32. Burundi: 9,  33. Togo:6.6,  34. Lybia: 6.3,

35. Sierra Leone: 5,  36. Central African Republic: 5, 37. Eritrea: 4.9, 38. Rep of Congo: 4.5

39. Liberia: 3.8,  40. Mauritania: 3.4,  41. Gabon: 2.2,  42. Namibia: 2.1,  43. Botswana: 2,

44. Lesotho: 1.8,  45. Equatorial Guinea: 1.8,  46. Gambia: 1.7,  47. Guinea Bissau: 1.7,

48. Mauritius: 1.2,  49. Swaziland:1, 50. Djibouti: 0,9

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?

Most recent grants from CTFK - Bloomberg Initiative for Kenya, Togo and Uganda

Grants for programs in Kenya,Togo and Uganda (see details below). The grant for Kenya amounts to $49.380, the grant to Togo to $152.963 while 4 grants to Uganda total $456.440.

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.

Interesting article about BAT's practices in South Africa and Nigeria

Browsing away I visited the excellent tobacco.org site and while searching for news about Africa I found this very interesting article by Ogala Emmanuel published on Premium Times. One part of the story is about the way BAT switches from traditional advertising (on billboards etc) to more subtle promotional practices, like offering cigarettes in many public places, "just so adult customers can test our brands". A classic move that is used globally and is more difficult to combat than illegal traditional ads and is probably more dangerous.

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?

The digital revolution in Africa

From this post in the Guardian. What should be the "consequences" for tobacco control? Signaled by Amie Newman in Impatient Optimists.

A mysterious project funded by IDRC: Expanding Fiscal Policies

Discovered on their site but it does not give much details about what it is precisely about, what the budget is, who the African partners are, etc.

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is looking for an Executive Assistant, Africa Programs

Just posted on Idealist.org

New Venture Fund for Global Policy and Advocacy: What Projects in Africa within this $1,329,671 grant?

Find below the description of the goals of the New Venture Fund for Global Policy and Advocacy (NVF for GPA) that was awarded a $1,329,671 grant by the Gates Foundation. I now cannot find it any longer on their site. 

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.

CTFK is looking for an innovative and strategic Associate Director of International Social Media

Just after posting my somehow pessimistic post about social media I find this announcement (pdf) on the CTFK site about the search for an "Innovative and strategic Associate Director of International Social Media", with a special focus on Africa and China. The perfect job for me (at least regarding Africa).
Feel free to recommend me by contacting [email protected]ionals.com
Thank you in advance.
The new Associate Director will provide strategic leadership to the development and implementation of an international 30-month social media project in support of tobacco control policy advocacy. This new and innovative initiative seeks to enhance and expand the Campaign’s communications capacity and the advocacy efforts of organizations in China and Africa through the strategic use of social media tools and targeted grantmaking in priority countries.
I don't think it's a good idea to try to find one person to work on both Africa and China. They are far too different and it would be better to have one person for each. Speaking (and writing) French should not be a plus it should be a must (like chinese for a chinese position). Unsolicited advice.

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.

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

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)

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.

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? 

CTFK's search for a "Director of Africa" continues with a slightly new version of the job ad

Below is the new job description. If you want to compare with the previous ones. This new version has more details. It mentions a lot of traveling: 30 to 40% of the time. Is it really the best way to operate in our digital age? This text raises other issues (at least for me) but I'll keep them private for now. If you want a hint, read Honest Feedback, Questions to the Gates Foundation as it contains a frank assessment of the performance of the various past and existing programs from which a new more effective strategy can be defined. After revisiting the site of the organization in charge of the search I see the job description is now the same to this new version they probably created.

Uganda: Inauguration of the CTCA

Visiting the site of the Tobacco Free Initiative about the inauguration of the Center for Tobacco Control in Africa on November 1, we find this link to the presentation given by Cynthia Lewis,  senior program officer for the Gates Foundation.

CTCA: The Center for Tobacco Control in Africa visited by IDRC

IDRC would be considering a partnership with CTCA.