Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

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?

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.

Tobacco Control Journalism Fellowship in Nigeria funded by CTFK

Here is one announcement but where are the articles? Where is the beef? There are no details about the $ amount of each award and there is no mention (apparently) of any radio project while radio broadcast remains a dominant medium in Africa. Another copycat reprint of the press release that does not provide any additional information.

Workshop for journalists in Ouagadougou

Sylviane Ratte continues to travel around the African continent. The journalists invited to this workhop in Ouagadougou seem happy but how many articles or radio programs did they produce, for what investment? Is this a cost effective way to produce tobacco control content in the media? What about paying them directly to produce content? How much is spent on travel and hospitality that could be invested in writing stipends?

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.

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?

Supporting African Journalists Who Report About Tobacco Control?

This article explains how US foundations fund journalists. The Gates Foundation is one of them. In 2008 a reflexion was started about how to support journalists willing to report about tobacco control issues in their country. The most effective way would be to directly compensate journalists for the documents they produce. Such contracts could be designed so that the various aspects of the MPOWER strategy are covered. How about giving it a try? The rate? $100 per story (would have to include at least one picture) and a $100 monthly bonus for the best segment. The rythm? one story per month with a precise deadline. Please let us stop the expensive capacity building workshops and let us directly pay the journalists to produce content for everybody to see.

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).

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 Integrity: governance research in Africa

This is a very interesting model. Can you imagine what it could achieve for tobacco control, that none of the present projects is doing, despite much bigger funding? Remember that you first learned about it here. Maybe some of your could be interested to be part of this project as local researchers.

African Tobacco Control Advocates on Facebook

Now on Facebook, 2 new pages: African Tobacco Control and  African Journalists Against Tobacco

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?

Ghana: Is Parliament/Cabinet full of smokers? by Joseph Ziem

Is Parliament/Cabinet full of smokers? That's the question asked by Accra based journalist and blogger Joseph Ziem as he deplores the lack of political will and support to pass the Anti Tobacco Bill.

I like any other average Ghanaian am just sick and tired of the fact that, there has been a very serious and disturbing delay in passing the Anti Tobacco Bill into Law, more than six years since it was taken to the Cabinet...

Source: Savannah News and Joy Online

African Tobacco Control Consortium Newsletter

The ATCC has published its first newsletter since its creation. It is a short document that repeats the main objectives of the Consortium but does not provide any substantial new information.

Who runs the organization? How are the decisions taken? Who are the 11 staff members? How is this $7 million budget (awarded by the Gates Foundation in November 2009) managed? Who are the recipients of the first grants since the first round was closed 5 months ago in August? Who are the members of the "selection committee" for those grants? How transparent and accountable is the Consortium going to be? Has an independent evaluator been appointed? Those are but a few of the questions that remain -for now- unanswered.

Google (again) wants to encourage digital journalism

From The Official Google Blog.

Tanzania: a presentation of the situation, a wish for a better enforcement of the legislation

an interesting article by Langa Saarakikya.

Source: The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

Botswana: "If it wasn't for poverty I wouldn't sell cigarettes"

In this article Isaac Pinielo interviews smokers, vendors and health experts about their relation to smoking and the tobacco situation in Botswana

Source: Mmegi online

Cameroon: workshop to train and sensitize journalists to tobacco control

20 journalists took part in this one day workshop in Youndé. Strangely there is only an article in English while 80% of people in camaroon are Frencg speaking and the government controlled Cameroon Tribune is bilingual. Why no article in French about this workshop?

Source: Cameroon Tribune by Victorine BIY

Botswana: toward a Tobacco Products Bill to replace the 1992 Control of Smoking Act

From the Botswana Gazette.

Uganda: how the tobacco farms increase the deforestation

In an article in the East African, Hamina Abdallah describes the gloomy environmental impact of the tobacco farms in Uganda. Apparently BAT declined to comment about those destructive practices.

Tih Armstrong Ntiabang new Media Advocacy and Communications Coordinator with the African Tobacco Control Consortium

Tih announced his nomination on LinkedIn. All our congratulations and best wishes. This information is not -yet- available on ATCA's or ATCRI's sites. Tih had been one of the African journalists invited to cover COP3 in Durban where he had supported the creation of an African network of journalists interested in tobacco control.

American Cancer Society Hosts First Francophone African Media Summit in Douala, Cameroon on April 16/18

From the blog of the American Cancer Society.

 
Loyce Pace (on right and in camera frame), director, Regional Programs, American Cancer Society, and Awatef Dali (center), a television personality and communications expert from Tunisia, are interviewed by journalists on the TV program Good Morning, Cameroon.

Tosin Orogun joins Africa News

Tosin Orogun posted this article on Africa News. This is his first contribution to this network of African reporters. it is about Margaret Chan's speech for the FCTC's 5th anniversary. She said: "Like my predecessors, I am not on speaking terms with the tobacco industry, but I will say this: we've come a long way, bullies." 

Ghana: We need a tobacco control law

This article by Jeorge Wilson Kingson of the Media Alliance on Tobacco Control was published January 21 on Ghana Web.

Kenya: the Bloomberg Initiative supports the creation of the Journalists Against Tobacco Forum

To develop a network of journalists (the Journalists Against Tobacco Forum) to cover and report on tobacco control issues in Kenya in a secure consistent and positive way, the Bloomberg Initiative grants $30,545 for one year to the Institute for Legislative Affairs.

Country: Kenya   Website: http://ilakenya.org  Amount: $30,545
Start Date: Jan 2010   End Date: Dec 2010

IDRC: Kathryn Touré insiste sur la nécessité d'assurer une large diffusion aux résultats des recherches.

Nous partageons complètement l'exigence formulée dans ce billet (déjà vieux d'un an). Mais à voir -un an plus tard- le site du CRES, il ne semble pas que le message ait été vraiment reçu. La solution -selon nous- passe par l'obligation précisément inclue dans les contrats d'affecter un budget à un professionnel de la communication (un "vrai journaliste" pas un chercheur) en déterminant un calendrier et un contenu spécifiques: par exemple un article d'au moins 2 à 3000 signes tous les premiers lundis de chaque mois.

Rachel Kitonyo's Acceptance Speech for the 2009 Judy Wilkenfeld Award International Tobacco Control Excellence

Picture Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Ever since I was a child, I have always known that I want to be a lawyer.

Lawyers to me then were this characters that I saw on TV who were glamorous, savvy, sweet talking people that I longed to emulate.

Somewhere inside me also was a passion for justice but the glamour came first

But there are defining moments in one’s life – moments that change the course of one’s path through life irrevocably. I would like to share three such moments with you.

Report first meeting of the Coalition of African Anti-tobacco Journalists

International Convention Center Durban, 21 November 2008, 11 African journalists present during third Conference of Parties (COP3) held a meeting to put in place and a group of African anti-tobacco journalists.

The main idea behind this meeting was a reflection on the setting up of a framework of African journalists who could enforce the efforts of FCA in their struggle to control tobacco in the world and Africa in particular.