Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

$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.

ACBF funding from the Gates Foundation: $14 million + (November 12 2018)

I had missed this info I just found on the Gates Foundation site (copy below). Those links are now (2021) useless. See below for the info.

Also see this ACBF video on Youtube (lots of blah, blah, no details)

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?

 

 

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.

Gates Foundation: Senior Program Officer, Africa - Francophone Job

Could this job (application reproduced below) also include prompting tobacco control? That could help.

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.

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"...

Gates Foundation grant of $4.6 million to the CDC Foundation for tobacco control surveys

We found the information on the CDC Foundation blog, in a post dated December 10 2014.

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?

$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.

Susan Desmond-Hellman: The Gates Foundation needs more transparency

The Chronicle of Philanthropy tells us about a talk delivered by Susan Desnond-Hellman where shew mentions the need for more transparency and listening to feedback. We wish this would not be only wishful thinking as far as the grants awarded by the Gatews Foundation to promote tobacco control in Africa are concerned.  but a very small part of the Foundation's activity but why should they be exempt of the transparency requirement?

What are foundations for?

A critical analysis of the role of 'Big Philanthropy' and democracy. By Gara LaMarche in Democracy.

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...

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?

What's next for the CTCA?

WHO received in December 2009, $9.994.093 for a 5 year project centered around the creation of a 'hub'.
The search for the country where the 'hub' would be installed was organized by the same DC based firm that was put in charge of its design and 'independent' evaluation. The announced budget for the 'hub' was to be about $3.5 million (less than 35% of the global grant) according to the document published in April 2010. The CTCA was inaugurated on... November 1, 2011 (the director had been recruited in September 2011).
The 'first phase' of the WHO project is supposed to end, according to this document (at the bottom) in two months, in July 2014. What's next? Is the Gates Foundation going to continue its funding? at what level? for how long?

About the evaluation of the African Tobacco Control Consortium/ACS grant/project and what's next?

During a meeting a year ago in Dakar the existence of an evaluation of the ATCC/ACS grant by consultants for the Gates Foundation was mentioned but without any additional information. While we still don't know the details of the evaluation we found out, one year later, about its authors: EnCompass LLC of Washington DC, a group that also helped WHO design the Kampala based CTCA and is in charge of its evaluation (see below). As the fate of the Consortium looks uncertain, what's next? What happened to the RFQ posted in November by the Gates Foundation? Contacted, the Gates Foundation did not reply. As usual, everything remains secret.

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.

Veteran's Day: what about looking back at the most recent battles in the tobacco war and discussing about the future?

As you can see from the most recent posts I have started to look at what happened in the past, especially since 2007/2008 when philanthropists Bloomberg and Gates provided millions of dollars that changed the face of tobacco control and I am wondering about what's next, especially, very concretely what is the Gates Foundation going to decide as they look for an organization to promote tobacco control in Africa for the next 3 years. I have a feeling of déja vu and fait accompli while at the very same time hoping for a change, a new practice in the process of grant management, engaging the whole community, including potential 'dissenters'. Making this wish I am only taking the word of CEO Jeff Raikes when he described his '3Ts priorities' in the speech he gave in Belfast in June 2012.
I have a few ideas about encouraging everybody to pitch in, share their personal evaluation of what happened since 2007/08 and offer suggestions/wishes for the next 3 years. Stay tuned.

Jeff Raikes about Philanthropy, Technology, Transparency and Teamwork.

Here is the whole text of the conference given by Jeff Raikes on June 5, 2012. Read it all and especially the parts at the end devoted to Transparency and Teamwork. I have reproduced the text below for 'safekeeping' because my experience has been that sometimes links were broken, texts were deleted and the original material was lost. Yes this also happened on the website of the Gates Foundation and for information about the tobacco control grants. 

 

The African Tobacco Control Consortium

From the ACS page devoted to the Consortium. What's happening now?

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.

 

Gates Foundation scores 'very poor' on the transparency index

From the Seattle based Humanosphere blog.

Did the Gates Foundation evaluate the African Tobacco Control Consortium?

In the report about the May 15 meeting in Dakar devoted to the future of tobacco control advocacy in Africa (still only available in French?) there is a presentation by Patrick Musavuli entitled: "Report of the evaluation on the ATCC project by the Gates Consultants and about the future of tobacco control advocacy in Africa", «Compte-rendu de l’évaluation des Consultants de GATES sur le projet ATCC, et sur l’avenir de la lutte antitabac en Afrique ». Unfortunately the summary does not provide any information about this "Gates evaluation", who did it, when nor if it is meant to be shared or kept confidential.

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.

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.

Gates Foundation and New Venture Fund: from $1,329,671 to $4,163,671

After visiting the Bloomberg Initiative's site I decided to visit as well the Gates Foundation's site in case there was anything new. Indeed there was. I had mentioned earlier a grant awarded by GF to the New Venture Fund that mentioned tobacco control in Africa. When revisiting the page devoted to this grant it appears that the amount has significantly increased: it's now $4,163,671 instead of $1,329,671.
All the rest remains identical and I could not find any additional information about what's it's all about. Just millions floating around. Philanthrocapitalism at work. Any reason to complain or be surprised?

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)

How difficult is it to speak truth to power at the Gates Foundation?

Seattle based blogger Tom Paulson reports about the articles devoted to the Gates Foundation published in the new issue of Alliance Magazine. He refers to Timothy Ogden's introduction that points out to the difficulty of honest feedback: under the headline Speaking truth to power, Ogden writes that it is increasingly difficult for anyone to speak truth to power at the Gates Foundation. We were surprised at the number of people who responded to our requests for submissions with some version of ‘I’d love to talk about that, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to comment publicly’.

Honest Feedback, Questions à la Fondation Gates

Honest Feedback est un petit livre (aussi en format e-book) que j'ai commis (en anglais seulement pour le moment) dans lequel j'exprime mes commentaires et mes suggestions sur la manière dont ont été et sont gérés les fonds substantiels investis par Michael Bloomberg et Bill Gates pour soutenir la promotion de la lutte anti-tabac en Afrique.

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.

From the 2009 Annual Report of the Gates Foundation: a commitment to 'Engaging the world online"

A few quotes from the 2009 Annual Report:

"We must do everything we can to make sure that we and our grantees can have the greatest possible impact"

"Connecting with the online community, not only to listen to what people are saying but to participate in those conversations, represent an incredible opportunity and has become a top priority of the Foundation"

"The online community has become essential to our efforts to build awareness and engagement around the issues we work on"

"Join the conversation. We d' love to hear from you"

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. 

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.

What do we learn from the new information made available on the IDRC site?

We learn that several organizations were funded by IDRC in August and September 2009 for a global amount of CAD 430.300: about 8% of the initial grant awarded by the Gates Foundation since the CAD 150.000 allocated to the University of Cape Town are not part of the ATSA program. Why weren't those grants publicly disclosed at the time? Why such secrecy? 

As there are sometimes several partners involved It is still sometimes unclear how the funds were allocated as this information is not given. Shouldn't all that be shared in due time and in detail? In several instances it looks like IDRC itself is included in the funding. 

Do those new grants impact our analysis about how IDRC allocated the funds received from the Gates Foundation? It does but in a relatively marginal way as most of those grants were not directly awarded to African organizations: when including those grants the amounts awarded represent 36 to 43% of the total depending on the grants that are considered (using the smallest estimate of the global budget at $5.2 million+).

Newly discovered IDRC funded tobacco control projects: FCA part of the "Coordination and collaboration in Africa"

In the first description of this grant (initiated in September 2009 for a 12 months duration), only ATCA appeared and Ebeh Kodjo told us they had been awarded CAD 122.200. In this description, FCA appears. FCA informed us they received CAD 97.000. Since the stated total of the grant is CAD 302.200 where did the rest (83.000) go? to IDRC?

IDRC: About the Synthesis and Analysis of ATSA Program Data

We had commented earlier about the fact that apparently Marquette University had only received a fraction of the global budget, raising the question of what happened with the rest of the money. 

As this document shows the total budget was CAD 478.500 and Jeffrey Drope has once again confirmed to us that Marquette University had received about CAD 123.551 ($118.300). So what about the remaining CAD354.949 (74% of the budget). Did they go back to IDRC via RITC?

Resource Center for Tobacco Control in Africa: deadline extended to July 15

This is just a reminder: the deadline for applying to this project funded by the Gates Foundation via WHO has been extended to July 15.

Transparency Officers to promote and implement transparency (and communication)

Because transparency needs to be a proactive process and will not happen without people in charge of making it happen. 

Source: opengov/ideascale via googling for transparency officer. 

IDRC: What happened to the $3.505.535 (67% of the Gates Foundation money) that were not allocated to African partners? Is such a repartition acceptable?

How did IDRC use the Gates Foundation's money? Why did African entities only receive 33% of the budget? What happened to the 67% that were not allocated to African partners? 

Comment est-ce que le CRDI a dépensé l'argent de la Fondation Gates? Est-il acceptable que seulement 33% des crédits soient allés aux partenaires Africains?

Qu'a fait le CRDI des 3.505.535 $ qui n'ont pas été attribués aux partenaires Africains? Qu'est-il advenu des 67% du budget non attribués aux partenaires Africains? Pourquoi les partenaires Africains n'ont-ils reçu que 33%?

The Globe and Mail does not want to blow smoke on Barbara McDougall

In an editorial the Toronto's newspaper defends IDRC and Barbara McDougall. Not very convincing and frankly cynical at the end. Readers, including Dr. Cordell Neudorf, Chair, Board of Directors, Canadian Public Health Association differ (read below).

More about the Gates Foundation's Grantee Perception Report and the importance of communication and feedback

Along the with the presentation of the Grantee Perception Report on the Foundation's site, you can find on the right side of the page an audio recording of a conference call that was organized between Jeff Raikes and other key leaders of the Foundation and a number of grantees. Jeff Raikes reiterates how important he considers obtaining honest direct feedback:

"It is not always easy for us to get honest feedback. Part of it is that the people we want the feedback from rely on us for funding and that can skew their thinking about providing us with feedback... I want to encourage you not to be shy... We want to hear from you directly..."

How does this process to obtain honest feedback apply to the grants awarded to promote tobacco control in Africa? I don't know if anybody involved in the management of those grants was invited to participate in the conference call. Considering the call made by Jeff Raikes in the direction of grantees to contact him about their concerns let us hope this opportunity will be seized.

A question worth asking IDRC's David Malone's: what did IDRC do with the $3.505.535 that were not allocated to African grantees? Is it a good practice? Is it acceptable?

On December 2007, the Gates Foundation awarded $5.274.477 to IDRC to promote tobacco control in Africa. At the very same time, Barbara McDougall who was a Director of Imperial Tobacco Canada was promoted to the position of Chair of the IDRC Board of Governors. Under her chairmanship the African grantees received (according to our calculation) CAD 1.768.942 that is 33.5% of the grant awarded by the Gates Foundation. What happened to the 66.5% that were not allocated to African grantees?

Gates Foundation CEO: Listening is key to success

Gates Foundation CEO says "listening is key to success" in this article published in USA Today. Is the Foundation listening as far as the management of its grants to promote tobacco control in Africa is concerned?

Avec le soutien de la Fondation Gates, l'OMS veut ouvrir un centre de ressources en Afrique: qui est candidat?

Grâce au financement de la Fondation Gates, l'OMS veut ouvrir un centre de ressources en Afrique. Délai d'inscription: le 31 mai. Le budget envisagé, pour une période de 5 ans est de 3.5 millions de $ (sur un budget global de 10 millions). Où et qui? A suivre.

Témoins du dedans: une initiative de l'UNICEF France en RDC qui montre comment communiquer

Ce "webdocumentaire" réalisé par des jeunes de Goma, des "témoins dedans" montre ce qu'il est possible de produire. Le matériel utilisé est encore assez important mais on dispose maintenant d'outils tout aussi efficaces et beaucoup moins coûteux, comme les flipcams.

Update about the grants awarded by the Gates Foundation to tobacco control programs in Africa

The 3 grants awarded since 2008 by the Gates Foundation to promote tobacco control in Africa amount to about $22,2 million. At the bottom the detailed list of the projects funded by IDRC (30% of the budget).

April 30, 2010: The World Health Organization announces it wants to open a tobacco control resource center in Africa. It would be funded for 5 years by $3.5 millions from the Gates Foundation grant.

April 12, 2010: Statement by the Gates Foundation about the termination of the IDRC grant. 

February 3, 2010: ACS announces it will manage a $7 million grant from the Gates Foundation (apparently awarded in November 2009) with an African Consortium. Duration of the program: 5 years. 

December 4, 2009: Official press announcement of the grant by WHO.

August 2009: The Gates Foundation awards a grant of $9,994,093 to WHO. Duration 5 years.

December 2007: The Gates Foundation awards a grant of $5.274.477 to IDRC to promote tobacco control in Africa. This was -by far- the largest grant ever awarded to promote tobacco control in Africa. This is supposed to be a 2 year program. Read the notes about the meeting in Ottawa on January 15/16 2008 and see below the detailed list of the projects funded with 30% of the budget.

Suite et fin du projet ATSA: un message du CRDI qui manque de précision

Le CRDI a posté sur son site un message expliquant qu'il entendait "réaffecter des fonds pour tenir ses engagements" afin de permettre la poursuite des "activités de recherche". Le CRDI ne précise pas le montant de ces crédits et ne fournit pas non plus une liste des projets concernés se contentant d'indiquer: "Les bénéficiaires sont invités à adresser toute question au personnel de RMCT au CRDI." 

State of achievement of the various IDRC-ATSA sub-grants. What happens to them?

What will happen to the grants awarded by IDRC under the contract with the Gates Foundation that are not over yet, now that the Foundation has terminated its grant to IDRC? Are concerned 9 grants (at least): ATCA (end date september 22, 2010), ATCRI (september 18, 2010), Kenya (August 31, 2010), Mauritius (August 31, 2010), Senegal (August 28, 2010), Eritrea (July 6, 2010), Nigeria (June 24, 2010), South Africa (June 19), Zambia (June 18). Who is going to manage them?