Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

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

Bloomberg tobacco control grants calls for 25th round of proposals

The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use Grants Program is an important component of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use. With funds from Michael R. Bloomberg, through his charitable foundation Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Grants Program is competitive and supports projects to develop and deliver high-impact evidence-based tobacco control interventions. The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use places a priority on countries with the highest prevalence of tobacco use. Round 25 is an open grant round, so is open to any low or middle-income country. Organizations are invited to submit proposals, with an early December 2018 deadline.

Who will get funded by CTFK in 2018?

We got a look in May at the ongoing grants awarded by CTFK and most of them were going to end in mid-2018 or earlier (see below). We had missed a grant awarded to Chad's Health Ministry (also see below with no $ amount declared). What's next for all those groups and projects? What happened to the STOP project?

Who will get funded by CTFK in 2018?

We got a look in May at the ongoing grants awarded by CTFK and most of them were going to end in mid-2018 or earlier (see below). We had missed a grant awarded to Chad's Health Ministry (also see below with no $ amount declared). What's next for all those groups and projects?

Grants awarded by CTFK in 2017-2018

I revisited the CTFK's site where there is now a clear page about their Africa programs. Unfortunately it's not complete. But the easiest way is to copy the list posted under the map (see below). Here is a summary of the grants awarded to 11 countries (some target several countries, like ATCA #7) for a total of about $1,7 million. Thank you to Bernie Burrola for sharing the info :)

1. Botswana:  Antitobacco network: $ 64,478   (7/1/16-3/31/18)
2. Burkina Faso: AFRIQUE CONTRE LE TABAC (ACONTA): $82,430.00
(10/15/16-6/14/18) 
3. Cameroon: Coalition for TC: $100,000.00    (7/1/17-6/30/18)
4. DRC: ACCT : $92,000.    (3/1/17-1/31/18)
5. Ethiopia: HEALTH, DEVELOPMENT AND ANTI-MALARIA: $82,080.00 (11/15/17-7/14/18)
6. Ethiopia: ATHIWOS WONDU-YEETHIOPIA CANCER SOCIETY: $82,080.00  (4/1/17 3/31/18) 
7. Kenya:  Kenya Tobacco Control Alliance:  $61,880.00   (1/15/18-7/14/18)
8. Kenya: Tobacco Control Board:  $77,880.00  (7/1/17-6/30/18)
9. Kenya: Institute Legislative Affairs:  $131,315.00   (3/15/16-4/14/18)
10. Niger: SOS Tabagisme : $52,415.00  (9/15/17-9/14/18)
11. Nigeria: ERDFN: $93,130.00   (11/15/17-7/14/18)
12. Senegal: Association Prevenir:  $115,250.00  (2/1/18-1/31/19)
13. Togo: ATCA : $250,000.00   (7/15/17-1/14/19)
14. Togo: ANCE: $107,430.00   (2/1/17-6/30/18)
15. Uganda: Consumers:  $102,560.00  (7/1/17-6/30/18)
16. Uganda: CEHURD:  $65,060.00  (6/15/17-6/14/18)
17. Uganda: UHCA:  $117,060.00  (5/15/17-5/14/18)

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?

 

 

CTFK grants in Africa

Here is the new page where you can find the list of the ongoing and 2016 grants awarded by CTFK to African projects (with funding from the Gates Foundation). We also copied the content below.

CTFK is looking for an Associate Director of International Communications-Africa

Oct 5, 2017

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) seeks nominations and applications for a strategic-minded, experienced, and proactive Associate Director of International Communications to play a leading role in CTFK's efforts to improve the quantity and quality of media coverage of key tobacco control issues in low-and middle-income countries. Qualified candidates will understand and have proven experience utilizing the media as a critical component of policy advocacy campaigns and providing technical support to organizations in the strategic use of media in advocacy, and will be a strategic partner to CTFK colleagues and civil society organizations in selected African countries in passing and implementing policies proven to reduce tobacco use.

The Associate Director will play an important role in supporting and training NGO partners in African countries to improve the quantity and quality of media coverage in their countries, as well as improving the capacity of the media to report on tobacco control and related issues. S/he will help organizations and networks in the selected countries develop and implement media advocacy strategies and implement programs such as journalism fellowships and workshops. This position is based in Washington, DC and is open to U.S. citizens and other applicants permitted to work in the U.S.

CTFK is still awarding grants in Africa but details will be given later (soon)

Here is the answer provided by Matt Myers in an email today after we asked about grants in Africa:

"We are still awarding grants in Africa, but the grants in Africa are funded from resources provided by the Gates Foundation so they no longer appear on the Bloomberg website.

You can find them on our website, but our website is about to undergo a major refresh so that the posting of recent grants has been delayed and won’t be posted for about another week or so."

Bloomberg Philianthropies invests $360 million in tobacco control

Bloomberg Philanthropies has announced it will invest $360 million in the next 5 years to support tobacco control initiatives worldwide. How much will go to efforts in Africa, to what organizations? Visiting the website of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids we only found one grant awarded in 2016 for a university in South Africa. They also funded the recent meeting in Harare (see the previous posts below). What's next? With whom? What about a global continental strategy for a change? One that would include each country. Such an all inclusive approach should have been implemented from the very beginning, ten years ago. Any hope for a change in the right direction? 

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.

To establish a Centre of Excellence for tobacco industry monitoring in South Africa and more: $78,160

Visiting CTFK's site devoted to their funding, this is the only project I found for 2016, as of today.

Establishing Tobacco Control Policy and Tobacco Industry Monitoring (TIM) Centre at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (located in Pretoria)
To establish a Centre of Excellence for tobacco industry monitoring in South Africa;
To create a web-based information platform for in-country actors to use in policy advocacy against tobacco industry interference;
to develop a framework to monitor and evaluate tobacco control policies across Africa in accordance with the WHO FCTC.
Country: South Africa
Website: http://www.smu.ac.za
Focus: Tobacco Control Policy (general)
Approach: Industry monitoring
Amount: $78,160
Start Date: May 2016
End Date: Apr 2017

Is the Bloomberg Initiative-Campaign forTobacco-Free-Kids still funding projects in Africa?

According to their map of grants, as visited today, they are not. Or they just need to update the map? Or they don't care sharing this information any more? We asked them repeatedly about it. To no avail. Yet.

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.

New tobacco control law passed in Uganda

As presented on CTFK's blog.

The opaque transparency of the Gates Foundation

Revisiting the website of the ACBF we discover this press release from the Gates Foundation dated November 19, 2014 announcing continued support for tobacco control in Africa. BUT, while this text lists the organizations the Foundation is partnering with, it does not provide any $ figure about the budgets awarded to each of them. At the same time, Cynthia Lewis writes:
You asked for more transparency in grant making, better role clarity and coordination among partners and grant makers, and direct investment in a strategic African organization that can help build capacity.
The problem (as we see it) is that she does not provide any detailed information besides the names of the 'intermediaries". Visiting, for instance, the CTFK site we were unable (as of today) to find any reference to a grant awarded in 2015 to an African country. As for the grant awarded to ACBF, we don't know it's size nor is there much detail about how it is going.

(After some more investigating we found that the ABCF grant seems to be for $8.5M, while the grant for surveys by the CDC Foundation would be $4.6M: that still leaves $18.5M unaccounted for -how much for CTFK? how much for WHO?- and there is very little detail about how all those amounts are going to be used. We should not have to go looking : why isn't all the info given upfront? That would be real transparency).

Cynthia also mentions that: As you know, we are also supporting some social marketing and behavior change work against tobacco use in Africa as a complement to important and ongoing policy work.
Well, we don't know about that. What is it about?

Looking back at the African news published in 2014 on the CTFK blog

Visiting CTFK's blog, Unfiltered, I have found 3 posts about Africa.
The first one on January 29, about the situation in Indonesia and Africa, the second on July 7 about Uganda's first Adult smoking survey, the third on December 2nd about the first Adult smoking survey in Kenya.

$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'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...

Bloomberg/CTFK: Grants awarded country by country (updated 2007- July 2014). Who got what?

Grants awarded by Bloomberg Initiative/CTFK, country by country and year by year (as of July 28, 2014). What do you think? Is this an equal distribution? Are there 'favorites'?

4 grants from the Bloomberg Initiative to Ghana, Togo and Uganda

Visiting the Bloomberg Initiative's site we discover 4 grants awarded in May, June and july 2014. All are provided to groups that were already regularly funded in Togo ($100,293), Ghana ($80K) and Uganda ($32K and $75K). See the details below.

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

From FCA. What audience? Just curious.

Bloomberg Initiative/CTFK: Grants 2007-2014. Who got what.

Grants awarded by Bloomberg Initiative/CTFK, country by country and year by year (as of July 28, 2014). What do you think?

Bloomberg Initiative: Thank you, the search function is now fixed :)

You can now search again the grants. That helps while I am updating the data for the third edition of Honest Feedback, soon to be available in print (on demand) and as e-book via Kindle/Amazon. The second edition was published in November 2011.

The case for philanthropy criticism?

From The Atlantic, a very touchy subject, especially when you depend on philantropic funding. Does it apply to tobacco control funding in Africa? Does anybody dare expressing any wish for changes, ask for public evaluation and transparency? But of course, speaking out can bring personal negative consequences, as explained in this opinion in Chronicle of Philanthropy.

New website for the Alliance Congolaise de Controle du Tabac: still with problems

10 days after our previous visit, the ACCT website is still incomplete (and with a few typos on the homepage).

Bloomberg Initiative: The search function of "what we fund' still broken

10 days after we signaled that the search function was broken, it still is!

RDC: a website for the Alliance Congolaise pour le Contrôle du Tabac

Considering the technical issues of the new ACCT site (click for instance on the presentation or nos projets sections), one wonders why they did not choose to use existing ready to use blog platforms like Blogspot or Wordpress along with a Facebook page instead of trying (and failing for now) to master Joomla. There is also a spelling problem with the position of the e and u in accueil/welcome. Easy to fix :) All our best wishes.

Bloomberg Initiative 2014: 4 grants to DRC, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda.

The Bloomberg Initiative has funded 4 projects in Africa since the beginning of 2014, in DRC ($80K), Kenya ($60K), Uganda ($18K), Ghana ($20K) for a total of $178K. All are linked to support passing legislation or implementing existing regulations.

Kenya: 3 Bloomberg Initiative grants (for a total of $260,077) to promote smoke-free workplaces and tobacco control policies

A one year grant of $100,484 to the African Women's Alliance for Tobacco Control to promote smoke-free workplaces, $68,254 for the Kenya Tobacco Control Alliance, $91,339 for the Tobacco Control Board. Total awarded = $260,077.

DRC: a $79,965 Bloomberg Initiative grant to promote Tobacco Control Legislation

From a recent visit to the Bloomberg Initiative website we found out that the Alliance Congolaise De Contrôle Du Tabac was awarded a one year grant of $80K to promote tobacco control legislation.

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.

2 year CTFK's grant for 7 Francophone countries (2014-2015)

Revisiting the grants database we discover this $300.000 grant awarded in July 2013 to the Association pour la défense des Droits des Consommateurs involving 7 countries: Chad, Niger, Burkina, Cote D’Ivoire, Guinea, Mauritania, and Burundi.

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.

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.

What audience for the nosmoke revolution clips?

Visiting the youtube channel of the Nosmoke Revolution advocacy campaign one can see that the most viewed of the 9 videos (apparently) is the spot by model LISSA (Mame Diarra THIAM) with 12000+ views (see her on FB). All the other videos have on average a few hundreds views but for the rappers with a few thousands (but on 2 months instead of only one)

Additional $65,925 grant for Prevenir Association in Senegal: No Smoke Revolution!

The Prevenir Association (?) was awarded a one year grant of $65,925 in August, to 'galvanize support for the adoption of a FCTC-compliant TC bill in Senegal. They had received a two months $31,241 grant in May. We found a FaceBook account for Prevenir but the main source of information remains LISTAB (in French)although the most recent post as of today is more than two months old (end of August 2013). Maybe because the updating now takes place on their FaceBook page, with details about their most recent campaign, NoSmoke Revolution (on FaceBook as well) and advocacy efforts.

Additional grant ($67,942) for Nigeria

The Bllomber Initiative/CTFK allocated $67,942 to the Tobacco Control Foundation of Nigeria for advocacy for passage and presidential assent of the national tobacco control bill (NTCB) in Nigeria. This comes in supplement of previous 2013 grants.

$ 84,962 for an Anglophone Lawyers Seminar in Addis Ababa

Recent grant noted on the Bloomberg Initiative website: $84,962 for The Ethiopian Public Health Association (EPHA) to support a 5-day Seminar for English-speaking African lawyers in Addis Ababa on the FCTC and the drafting and implementation of effective tobacco control legislation.

Nigeria: $29,886 for implementing the prohibition of smoking in pulic places in Ekiti State

This one year grant awarded in July 2013, complements several previous grants by the Bloomberg Initiative.

Madagascar: grant awarded by the Bloomberg Initiative (2012-2015): $177,121

$177,121 awarded to the Office National de Lutte Antitabac to support the adoption of smoke-free public and workplaces by the Bloomberg Initiative. it's almost twice the amount of the previous grant that was devoted to graphic warnings. Here is a report about a recent workshop probably financed by this grant (in French). Here a video posted on YouTube  in Malagasy (32 views).

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?

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?

Bloomberg Initiative: recent grants awarded

The Bloomberg Initiative has recently awarded the following grants: 6 months support for the Ghana advocates ($100,463), one year media initiative in Kenya ($73,659), one year grant for advocacy support in Nigeria ($170,380) and the Nigeria Adult Tobacco Survey ($12,000), 3 months grant for advocacy support in Senegal ($31,241) for a grand total of a little less than $400,000. Applications for the next round end July 26.

Announcing Round 14 of the Bloomberg Initiative Grants Program

Announcing Round 14 of the Bloomberg Initiative Grants Program (1 July 2013)
Project Ideas are now being accepted for Round Fourteen of the Grants Program. The deadline for submission of Project Ideas is 12:00 hours, US Eastern
Standard Time (GMT -5 hours) on Friday, 26 July 2013.