Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

2013/2014 IDRC grant to CRES to improve taxation policies in West Africa

IDRC provided CRES with a $378 grant in June 2013 to promote improving the taxation of tobacco products in West Africa. A one day workshop was organized in February 2014  in Ivory Coast, bringing together parliamentarians from 14 of the 15 countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). More infos on the site of CRES  about this meeting, but only in French. To get the reports country by country, click on 'documents'.

2013/2014 IDRC grant about taxation and smuggling in Eritrea

This $79K grant aims at assessing the impact of tobacco taxation, smuggling, and street vending on consumption, and its implication for tobacco control in Eritrea.

IDRC and Taxation of Tobacco Products in West Africa

Revisiting the grants awarded by IDRC it is interesting to look at how Dakar based CRES has been significantly funded to research the taxation of tobacco products in West Africa. Of course many meetings were organized including one in Paris and a 3 day conference in Ougadougou. But is any specific information available on line? I have not found any -yet-.

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)?

Workshop about tax policies in West Africa in Ouagadougou (November 26-28)

Find below the press release posted on tobacco.org from AllAfrica.

A mysterious project funded by IDRC: Expanding Fiscal Policies

Discovered on their site but it does not give much details about what it is precisely about, what the budget is, who the African partners are, etc.

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)

CTCA: The Center for Tobacco Control in Africa visited by IDRC

IDRC would be considering a partnership with CTCA.

Tobacco Control in Africa: People, Politics and Politicies

Edited by Jeffrey Drope, this book (with a preface by Jeffrey's sister Jacqui) is a presentation of the ATSA project co-published by Anthem Press and IDRC. Available as hardcover via Amazon for a pricey $99. When clicking on the Amazon look inside function you can see some of the book content while it seems the whole content can be accessed and downloaded for free in a pdf format via the digital library of IDRC. Anthem Press mentions there is an e-book version but we could not find it. A French version is to be published by the Presses de l'Université Laval and IDRC under the title: La lutte contre le tabagisme en Afrique. 

Tobacco Control in Africa: People, Politics and Politicies, a personal opinion

In his foreword, Dr. Akinkugbe talks of a "magnus opus, a monumental work", while for Evan Blecher, it "sets new standards for tobacco control research on the continent".
Written by IDRC's grantees, published (paid for) by IDRC, this is an hymn to IDRC: self-inflated, self-congratulatory, self-serving, it conveniently ignores the many problems and failures linked to the ATSA program. Considering the amounts invested, the final result is incredibly small and of very limited use. A very inconvenient and unacceptable assessment for all those who were/are part of the IDRC system. The book is a PR smokescreen for a very defective and wasteful project.

How to submit an access to information request to IDRC

How to submit an Access to Information or Privacy Act Request to IDRC

 

Requests for information may be made under the Access to Information Act or the Privacy Act. While procedures are similar, they are not the same. Learn more about submitting: 

• an access to information request
• a request for personal information

 

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Access to Information Ac
To make a request under the Access to Information Act, you may either submit your request on the IDRC Access to Information Request Form or you may write to us stating that your request is pursuant to the Access to Information Act. Your request should be forwarded, along with the CA$5.00 application fee payable to the International Development Research Centre, to the following address:

Legal and Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator
Office of the Secretary and General Counsel
International Development Research Centre
PO Box 8500
150 Kent Street
Ottawa ON  K1G 3H9

Please note

• An application fee of CA$5.00 payable to the International Development Research Centre is required before the processing of your request under the Access to Information Act can begin.
• To make an Access to Information request, you must either be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or have an address in Canada. Canadians living abroad will be required to provide proof of citizenship in order to receive the information they are seeking.
• If you are not a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident and would like to submit a request to IDRC, you should to do so through a representative that is a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident, or someone who has an address in Canada.
•  Corporations, businesses, and organizations with a Canadian presence have the right to make an access to Information request.
•  Please note that an applicant may be charged additional search fees and/or preparation fees in regards to a request they have submitted under the Access to Information Act.

Download: Request Access to Information Act form

International Development Research Centre 
Lorraine Gareau 
Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator 
150 Kent Street 
P.O. Box 8500 
Ottawa , Ontario  K1P 0B2
Telephone: 613-696-2348   
Facsimile: 613-235-6391
[email protected]

 

IDRC, the Access To Information Act and effective communication

The process to request information from IDRC is now clearly mentioned on their site. Requirements: being a Canadian citizen or a resident of Canada, pay a CAD 5 fee. Unfortunately none of the other big donors, Foundations, international institution like WHO or NGO is that transparent despite eventual claims that they are or want to be. Of course it would even be better if the information was readily available so one does not even have to ask for it. That would be proactive disclosure. Visiting the pages devoted to the Research in International Tobacco Control I was unable to find any precise information about the past and ongoing projects. Maybe they are still in the (very slow) process of transferring the info from their previous site. Still... with the staff they have it should not take that long. Why not one or several blogs? But that suggestion I already made 3 years ago... without success. Except for abruptly terminating my communication consulting contract. It remains a valid suggestion.

What happened to the Global Smokefree Partnership?

Visiting the site of the Global Smokefree Partnership after reading Tih's article about the slow growth of smokefree places in Africa it looks like nothing has been posted since november 2010. GSP, managed by ACS had received a grant from IDRC to help ATSA teams in 6 countries: Cameroon, Eritrea, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal, Zambia. What happened to this project? What happened to GSP? 

Honest Feedback, Questions to the Gates Foundation

Honest Feedback, Questions to the Gates Foundation is a small book (80 pages) by Philippe Boucher, now available in paperback via the internet print on demand publisher Blurb.com and also as an e-book via Amazon-Kindle. Just click on Blurb or Kindle and get a copy.
Philippe Boucher -who also manages the blogs Tobacco Control in Africa and Vers une Afrique Sans Tabac- shares his thoughts about the promotion of tobacco control in Africa and the role played by the Bloomberg Initiative and the Gates Foundation. A rare independent point of view, as 'not many speak their mind to the Gates Foundation'. The book is dedicated to the Foundation's CEO, Jeff Raikes who calls regularly for honest feedback. See also this interview of Boucher.

 

Small grants are beautiful, but are there any?

This post is about the effectiveness of "small" grants ($5.000/$10.000 and under). What happened to small grants in the strategy of the present programs? 

IDRC and tobacco control in Africa?

Visiting the IDRC's website I had found two projects concerning alternatives to tobacco growing in Kenya and in Zambia (see below). Here is a report by Dorcas Kiptui about Kenya . I did not find any information about the external evaluation report but I received a quick answer after an e-mail inquiry, providing me with the adequate link to the report. I found the content of the report disappointing but I did not have high expectations. What is IDRC doing now in Africa, beyond the two projects mentioned above, remains unclear. What happened (for instance) to the Rapid Response Fund project?

IDRC: Accountability Tools for Policy Research

IDRC has funded this interesting project by One World Trust. It is about improving accountability and transparency. How much or how little IDRC implements those goals is debatable. 

Indicators for a transparent management scorecard

Following up on the need for more transparency (and accountability) that has been at the core of this blog, I have listed 10 indicators that I believe would be helpful to assess how organizations are performing. Here they are:

1. Names, bios of the staff and contact email (program, project managers, all staff involved)
2. Detailed annual report explaining the activities
3. Detailed annual operational budget (easy to find and providing key info, see below)
4. Budget for staff and consultants (staff administrative costs)
5. Budget for travel and hospitality (including monthly update and yearly detailed list)
6. Transparency blog providing regular detailed information about the progress of each program/project/grant
7. Open selection process for grant applications (all applications available)
8. Transparency requirement for grantees and sub-grantees (including the 7 first items of this scorecard)
9. Establishment of a benchmark scorecard (baseline) for the project, updated yearly to allow evaluation
10. Willingness to answer questions and provide information (for big institutions, Access to Information person and procedure)

What do you think the score is for each organization involved in promoting tobacco control in Africa?

 

What makes an effective campaign?

Each campaign needs to have a focus in four areas throughout the campaign. The campaign needs effective management, it needs the right policy, it needs an effective communication strategy and it needs the right network. These elements interplay with each other.

From the Network Advocacy blog.

Senegal: Methodological workshop on tobacco taxation in West Africa

The CRES has hosted in Dakar a three day workshop (February 22-24) on tobacco taxation in West Africa. Among the participants, Evan Blecher (ACS), Sylviane Ratte (Union), Ebeh Kodjo (ATCA), Noureiny Tcha Kondor (African Consortium), Greg Hallen (IDRC).

Day 2 of the ATSA meeting in Johannesburg - on Cancerblogs

This post on Cancerblogs presents Day 2 of the ATSA meeting.

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.)

African Tobacco Control Consortium: The January 2011 Newsletter

The January 2011 Newsletter is now available. It announces the 4 projects awarded "small" grants (from Algeria, Bénin, Botswana and Zambia), the organization of the big ATSA meeting in Johannesburg in early February and the names of the members of a committee of researchers.

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?

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.

IDRC: What happened to the database developed by the American Cancer Society?

Under the name "Coordination Support for International Tobacco Control Funder's Forum" IDRC provided CAD 14.420 to the American Cancer Society to compile a database of the projects funded to promote tobacco control in low and middle income countries. The one year project starting date was in September 2008 but it lasted until February 2010.

What happened to this database? Who can access it?

CIFCOT 3: les entretiens de Charles Dossou Ligan avec Eugène Gbedji et Chabani Bourhane

Charles Dossou Ligan publie ses entretiens avec Eugène Gbedji (ATSA-IDRC) et Chabani Bourhane (Comores) sur le site de CIFCOT 3.

Diversification for tobacco growers: Is bamboo a solution?

IDRC funded several grants (phase 1, phase 2) to study the possible use of bamboo to replace tobacco. Tobaccotobamboo.org (not tobaccotobamboo.com) is a site devoted to present the research taking place in Kenya. TCA is trying to obtain an update as its results now take a special importance in the context of the present controversy with the International Tobacco Growers Association.

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%.

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?

Newly discovered IDRC funded tobacco control projects: FCA funded for Technical Assistance to the ATSA teams (in August 2009)

This grant of CAD 291.100 is listed as starting August 1st 2009 (duration 12 months) but we only found about it now. The recipients appear to be the Global Smokefree Partnership, FCA and Healthbridge. FCA told us they received CAD 145.000 managed via GSP. Path Canada (HealthBridge since 2006) is also mentioned as a recipient. HealthBridge had partnered with IDRC to apply for the phase 2 of the Gates Foundation in July 2009 (ACS was selected).

The grant is to allow the partnership to help 6 country teams (Cameroon, Eritrea, Ghana, Malawi, Sénégal and Zambia). 

Newly discovered IDRC tobacco control projects: CAD 150K for Rapid Response Fund for Opportunities to Advance Tobacco Control

Here is a grant that had not been previously publicly advertised although it's stated starting date is September 24, 2009 (duration 36 months). It is not clear how much goes  eventually to IDRC itself and how much goes to the recipient. Why was the University of Cape Town chosen?  Was the funding from the Gates Foundation grant? The amount is CAD 150K. Kathy Murphy-Everett is a senior researcher with Cape Town University. A study she managed about helping pregnant mothers to quit was apparently funded by IDRC in 2005. We have not been able -yet- to contact her. After a closer look it seems this grant is not part of the ATSA program so its funding did not come from the Gates grant. It remains interesting to know more about it.

Newly discovered: ACS funded by IDRC to study cigarette taxation in Tanzania

This project was funded (CAD 42.2300) on September 25 2009, for one year. The goal is to demonstrate that increased taxation will reduce consumption without reducing tax revenues, in fact increasing tax revenues. Contact: Evan Blecher, a South African economist now with the American Cancer Society.

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?

Looking at the tobacco control grants awarded by IDRC

The IDRC site has now a search function that allows to list the projects. We used the 'tobacco" keyword to have a look and we made a few discoveries that we share with you in the next posts.

Melodie Tilson (Non Smoker's Rights Association - Canada) about IDRC

This email from Melodie Tilson of the Non Smoker's Rights Association provides an update about the way IDRC dealt with Barbara McDougall's conflict of interest and the demands from the international tobacco control community that she resigns her position as IDRC's Chair.

Dear colleagues:

First of all I would like to thank all of you who responded to the request for help and wrote letters to the IDRC Board of Directors calling for the resignation of the Chair, Barbara McDougall, because she had until March 31 of this year also served on the board of Imperial Tobacco Canada. 

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).

In Tobacco Control Journal: IDRC's story as told by Rachel Kitonyo

In the News Analysis section of the June issue of Tobacco Control, Rachel Kitonyo tells the story of IDRC/ATSA as she sees it.

Maybe she could have said the discovery that Barbara McDougall was a board member of Imperial Tobacco was first published on this blog as our Editor was the one who found about this problematic connexion.

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?

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.

IDRC increasingly ostracized by health groups worldwide according to the Globe and mail

In this article the Globe and mail explains IDRC's representatives have been ostracized from attending a recent tobacco control meeting in Ghana and rejected as sponsor for a conference in Australia and a special issue by the Lancet. IDRC's argument to deny and/or minimize the conflict of interest of its Chair does not appear to be very convincing.

Open Medicine calls for the resignation of former Cabinet Minister Barbara McDougall

In a strongly worded editorial published today in Open Medicine, the editorial team calls for the resignation of former Cabinet Minister Barbara McDougall, who currently chairs the board of governors of the International Development Research Council (IDRC) and was, until March 2010, also a member of the board of directors of Imperial Tobacco.

A very interesting post about admitting a mistake and learning from it or keeping it all under the carpet

This post is about how Foundations should admit mistakes and learn from them. It describes how Bill Gates dealt with the difficulty of eradicating polio and how it is important no to put a failure under the carpet.

Unfortunately this is what happened with the IDRC grant. It is one thing to announce a grant is "terminated" but what's next? and what lessons if any are learned about the management of tobacco control grants in Africa?

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.

How many journalists jailed in Eritrea?

While Eritrea was awarded a grant by IDRC to promote tobacco control its government continues to jail and torture journalists as detailed by Reporters without borders. Is this acceptable? In Cameroon a journalist just died in jail.

IDRC's notice about the continuation of the ATSA project: many questions still pending.

IDRC's notice published on their website explains they "are re-allocating other IDRC funds to this priority area in order to honour its grant agreements with researchers in relation to ATSA".

How much money is IDRC "re-allocating"? What are the grants concerned? Can they all be considered as "research"? The notice does not say. Last but not least, will the African advocates accept to continue to work with IDRC while Barbara McDougall still chairs the Board of Governors? 

IDRC-ATSA's "situational analyses" (pre-publication versions)

The core of the IDRC-ATSA project was to produce "situational analyses" for the 12 countries involved. A pre-publication version of those documents is now available on the IDRC site. Have a look and do not hesitate to tell us what you think. Keep in mind this is the result of a $5.2 million grant.

Sorry for our French speaking readers but it appears that for now all those documents are only available in English.