Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

ACBF and Gates Foundation's partners in Abuja for coordination meeting

Find below the info posted on the ACBF website about this meeting.

ACBF and Gates Foundation's partners in Abuja for coordination meeting

Find below the info posted on the ACBF website about this meeting.

Who is going to travel to Harare, how much is it going to cost, for what benefit?

This info found on the site of the ACBF: another 5 day workshop to supposedly train people who are already (or should be) seasoned advocates. We have denounced from the very start how travel and hospitality expenses were totally out of control as far as the Gates Foundation projects in Africa were concerned. At the age of internet and skype (now owned by Microsoft), plenty of money continues to be spent on wasteful and useless 'workshops'. When will they learn? I fear never.

Tobacco Control Advocacy and Leadership training for CSOs
Harare, Zimbabwe
29 Aug 2016
02 Sep 2016
This is an annual Coordination event held for ACBF supported sub-grantees. This year’s workshop aims to enhance understanding and impart skills in advocacy and leadership for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to be able to advocate for the passage of Tobacco Control (TC) Bill and effective implementation of TC laws in the respective target countries. The workshop will be jointly conducted with Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK). CSOs supported by CTFK will also participate in this workshop.

Role of ACBF

The African Capacity Building Foundation with support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is supporting Civil Society Organizations in 4 various countries:
1. Centre for Tobacco Control in Africa (CTCA) in Uganda,
2. University of Cape Town, Economics for Tobacco Control Project South Africa,
3. African Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) in Togo, and
4. Ministry of Health in Senegal to support tobacco control.

The 9 Civil Society Organisations being supported include:

Association Mauritanienne de Lutte contre la Tuberculose et le SIDA (AMALUTS)- Mauritania
Initiative Pour L’Education Et le Controle du Tabagisme (IECT)-Benin
Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC)-Nigeria
African Network for Information and Action Against Drugs (RAID)-Gambia
Mouvement Populaire Pour la sante au Gabon (MPS)-Gabon
International Institute for Legislative Affairs (IILA)-Kenya
Parliamentary Forum on Non Communicable Diseases (PFNCD)-Uganda
Association PREVENIR-Senegal
Mathiwos Wondu -YeEthiopia Cancer Society (MWECS)-Ethiopia

Of the above 9 CSOs target countries, five of them have tobacco control laws passed and are currently implementing the TC laws, the countries include: Senegal, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Gabon. The other four countries are working on the passage of FCTC compliant tobacco controls Bills, of which TAPS and Plain Packaging is part of WHO FCTC compliant law.

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.

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"...

$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)

 

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 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?

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?

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?

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

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. 

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?

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)?

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?

Regional Conference in Ouagadougou, November 26,27, 28 2012 about tobacco taxation

press release

The Consortium for Social and Economic Research (CRES), in partnership with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and International Development Research Centre for International Development ( IDRC), organizes a regional conference to share country profiles made in the 15 countries in ECOWAS and regional synthesis on tobacco products taxation products. This high-level meeting will be held on Monday 26, Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 November 2012 at   hotel Azalaï-Independence at Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

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?

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

Just posted on Idealist.org

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.

Meeting in Paris about tobacco taxation in Africa

Meeting in Paris July 31, 2012 Was it really necessary and what was really achieved? How much did it cost? REALLY?

Jeudi, 09 Août 2012 10:06

Rencontre sur la Collecte de données dans la taxation du tabac en Afrique – Paris, 31 juillet 2012 Le mardi 31 juillet 2012 à Paris, le CRES, représenté par le Pr Abdoulaye Diagne et Mme Nafissatou Baldé Sow, a pris part à la Rencontre sur la Collecte de données dans la taxation du tabac en Afrique. Elle a été organisée par The Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases représentée Mme Sylvianne Ratte, Conseillère technique Lutte Anti-Tabac. Le séminaire a réuni plusieurs acteurs de la taxation du tabac : l’African Tobacco Control Consortium, le Centre de recherche pour le développement international, l’American Cancer Society, l’Organisation Mondiale de la Santé, le Center for Disease Control and Prevention, la fondation Bloomberg, la Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, l’Université de Montreal et l’Université de Cap Town. Les intervenants ont pu exposer les projets en cours ainsi que les données collectées dans le domaine de la taxation du tabac. Ils ont également partagé leurs expériences sur la collecte de données, notamment en précisant les données manquantes dans les pays que leurs projets ont couverts. Des suggestions ont été faites pour une meilleure exploitation des sources de données existantes, l’amélioration de la collecte des données et des précisions apportées le type de données nécessaires pour la formulation d’une politique de taxation plus efficace. Enfin, les structures présentes ont échangé sur les perspectives de projets futurs pour la collecte des données sur les taxes et les prix du tabac, et ont notamment évoqué la collaboration avec les Instituts Nationaux de la Statistiques dans les pays d’Afrique, les possibilités de formation des décideurs et les opportunités de partenariat au niveau régional et international.

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.

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)

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.

The "business" of international aid

An opinion published in the Wall Street Journal. 

Zambia: 5 ATCA representatives visit Lusaka with the financial support of the Norwegian Cancer Society

ATCA informs us that 5 representatives are going to visit Lusaka from February 15 to February 17 to "meet the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) authorities, health authorities, WHO representative, journalists and other TC stakeholders of the region".

Taboo question: how much does this trip cost?

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 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.)

ACS, WHO to hold ATSA consultation meeting in Johannesburg on February 3d : is Barbara McDougall invited?

All is well again with IDRC as ACS and WHO embrace the ATSA work and effectively forgive the McDougall story. Meanwhile the "independent" evaluation of the ATSA program is still not public. Is Barbara McDougall going to attend this meeting? What a short memory. Is such a change of attitude acceptable? What do you think?

This announcement was posted on the site of the African Consortium.

Peter Eigen and global transparency

From this blog a post about a presentation by Peter Eigen about global transparency. It also concerns civil society. For instance, in relation to the international conference that will take place in September in Niamey, transparency would require the donors to publish their budget.

Conférence Internationale Francophone Contre le Tabac (CIFCOT III) à Niamey au Niger du 25 au 28 Septembre 2010.

Inoussa Saouna nous fait part de l'information suivante au sujet de la conférence CIFCOT III (sans -pour le moment- le programme préliminaire).

Le programme est maintenant disponible ici.

List of Tobacco control advocates attending INB4 in Geneva

Here it is (pdf format), pages 25 and 26 and below (in yellow 10 or so African advocates).

No fly summit: a good idea for tobacco control meetings in Africa?

Church leaders used ning for an internet video-conference, a no-fly summit that saved plenty of money, time and reduced the carbon footprint. What about tobacco control advocates?

How to run a meeting like Google? What lessons for tobacco control in Africa?

I just found this article published in Business Week in September 2006 about the way Marissa Mayer manages her meetings. I read it because I have developed a certain skepticism (to say the least) about the many international meetings that are taking place, moving a lot of people at a high cost for what seems (to me) most often very little output.