Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

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

Read the program (Google doc.)

Fraud at the Global Health Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Cases of fraud are being investigated at the Global Health Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Several African countries appear implicated. There is criticism about the overreliance on grant recipients to assess their own performance. The audits are conducted by John Parsons the Global Fund's Inspector General.

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?

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.

African Tobacco Control Consortium: Who are the recipients of the "small" grants for 2010?

On August 3, the Consortium had closed the first round  to offer "small" tobacco control action grants (maximum $20K for a two year period). 5 months later, what happened to this process?

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.

RDC: Atelier de formation de journalistes à Kinshasa

Radio Okapi présente brièvement cet atelier de formation organisé par ATCRI (pour le Consortium Africain AntiTabac avec les fonds de la Fondation Gates). Il avait été précédé par des sessions similaires au Cameroun, Sénégal et Botswana.

Consortium Africain de Lutte contre le Tabac: Découvrez leur nouveau site

La version Française du site contient encore malheureusement un nombre significatif de fautes d'orthographe et de syntaxe dont on ne peut que souhaiter la correction rapide afin de donner à cet effort d'information tout son éclat. 

African Tobacco Control Consortium: Discover their site Africa Tobacco Control Resource Center

The Africa Tobacco Control Resource Center presents the activities of the African Consortium that manages with the American Cancer Society the $7 million grant awarded by the Gates Foundation.

ACS confirms its commitment to Sub-Sahara Africa

John seffrin confirms ACS commitment to tobacco control in Sub-Sahara Africa at the Clinton Global Initiative.

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.

UICC World Conference in China: A session sponsored by ACS about tobacco control in Sub-Sahara Africa

Visiting the blog of the American Cancer Society we discover this information. 

The controversy over the Social Innovation grants brings more transparency

Read the story in the Chronicle of Philanthropy and also this opinion piece. What lessons (if any) for the ways tobacco control grants are managed? In this case all the applications and their reviews are going to be made public. One wishes the same could be true as far as the tobacco control grants are concerned.

Quelques précisions sur la conférence CIFCOT 3

Le programme de la conférence et le formulaire de demande de subvention pour y assister sont maintenant disponibles via le site ATCA et les copies postées par nos soins sur google docs. Le formulaire de demande de subvention indique que le nombre de personnes subventionnées via une bourse de participation est limité. Il précise également que les personnes ainsi invitées devront s'engager à assister à toutes les sessions, prendre des notes et partager leur expérience: un blog pour la conférence (voir quelques autres précédents sur la colonne de gauche en bas) semble un outil parfaitement adapté pour atteindre ces objectifs. 

Compiling the data about the grants awarded by the Bloomberg Initiative and the Gates Foundation (via IDRC-ATSA)

While the process for applying to the the round 8 of the Bloomberg Initiative and the round 1 of the Consortium is starting TCA thought interesting to compile the grants awarded by the Bloomberg Initiative and the Gates Foundation (via IDRC-ATSA). 

Bloomberg + Gates (ATSA) distributed to African organizations $5.130.746: BI allocated $3.457.863 (67,3%) and IDRC-ATSA allocated $1.672.884 (32,6%). 

3 countries collected 51.6% of the total (Nigeria, Kenya, Burkina) and the countries/groups funded both by BI and IDRC collected 86%.

Les projets pour le Consortium sont à envoyer à [email protected] avant le 3 août 2010

Francis Ebeh a précisé l'adresse email et posté un nouveau formulaire sur le site ATCA. La date limite est le 3 août 201 (soit d'ici 2 semaines et 3 jours).

Send your concept notes for the ATCC country grant to [email protected] before August 3, 2010

Francis Ebeh has emailed this precision and posted a form that includes the email address on the ATCA's site. The deadline is August 3, 2010.

Appel à projets pour le Consortium Africain de Lutte Contre le Tabac

L'appel à projets annoncé par le Consortium composé de l'American Cancer Society (ACS), Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK), Union contre la tuberculose (Union), et les coalitions Africaines ATCA et ATCRI a pour date limite le 3 août . Le document diffusé ne précise pas où il convient d'adresser les projets. Une lacune qui sera sans doute rapidement comblée. 

Le Consortium est financé par la Fondation Gates.

African Tobacco Control Consortium: Call for "concept notes"

The African Tobacco Control Consortium announced a call for "concept notes" for national campaigns. The dealine is August 3 but I did not see an address/email where the applicants can apply.

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.

2 jobs offered in Lomé by the ATCC with ATCA

The two jobs (at the manager level) are: Tax campaign coordinator and Development campaign coordinator.

They are based in Lomé with ATCA.

See the detailed pdf format description here. Deadline to apply may 3d.

2 offres d'emploi du Consortium pour la lutte contre le tabac en Afrique (ATCC) à Lomé avec ATCA

Ces deux offres sont: Coordinateur de campagne de taxation (niveau Directeur), Coordinateur de campagne de développement (niveau Directeur).

Les conditions sont les mêmes que pour les annonces précédentes, avec une base à Lomé avec ATCA.

Présentation détaillée en format pdf, ici.

3 jobs offered in Lagos by the Africa Tobacco Control Consortium (ATCC) with ATCRI

The 3 jobs are: Media advocacy and Communications Coordinator (manager level), Research Coordinator (manager level) and Regional language coordinator. 

As far as the linguistic skills required from the candidates are concerned, for the first two positions they are "Excellent communication skills in English and/or French" and "Willingness to learn French/English if they don't speak either". We assume the real meaning was if they don't speak both.

The 3 positions are based in Lagos with ATCRI and are described in detailed in this pdf file that was attached to the announcement.

The African Tobacco Control Consortium hires

Below is the initial announcement about the creation of 5 jobs by the African Tobacco Control Consortium: 3 based in Lagos (with ATCRI), 2 in Lomé (with ATCA). More details to come.

Le Consortium pour le contrôle du Tabac en Afrique recrute

Vous rouverez ci-dessous l'annonce initiale et nous publierons par la suite les descriptions détaillées pour chaque offre: 3 postes sont basés à Lagos et 2 à Lomé.