Tobacco Control in Africa - TCA

Coronavirus drives Malawi tobacco farmers to the brink

By Jack McBrams for AFP.

What about African children working in tobacco fields?

WNTD 2020 is centered exclusively on the risks posed to children by smoking tobacco and how the tobacco industry targets them as future customers. But what about the children the tobacco industry exploits at the very beginning of the process, in the tobacco fields? Once more they are completely ignored :(

Here is a 2019 dossier published in the magazine Geographical about Child Labour and the tobacco industry. Also this article in The Guardian by Sara Boseley in 2018 ("supported" by Vital Strategies) or this 2014 article. On November 1, 2019 the US suspended its imports from Malawi.
Plus a lawsuit filed against BAT here and as told in The Guardian. Even more recent, this article about 'Shifting from tobacco growing to alternatives in Malawi?".

 

$ 3million for 20 Scholarships grants for students from Malawi funded by the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World

The Foundation announced the new program on July 22, 2019. You can read here the press release and we also reproduced the text below. I emailed Nicole Bradley about the budget (not mentioned in the press release): she replied this is a three year, $3 million program. The deadline to apply is October 17, 2019.

The grants are managed by the US based Institute for International Education.

Malawi turning to Marijuana farming after tobacco demand dwindles

Malawi is set to become the next African country to legalize marijuana farming in a bid to boost its economy. This comes as its major foreign exchange earner tobacco starts to see the impact of a decades-long global anti-smoking lobby led by organizations including the World Health Organization and other African based tobacco control organizations.

A study of tobacco farmers in Zambia, Kenya and Malawi

Here.

Malawi, Tanzania: Japan Tobacco International celebrates its reforestation program

From the JTI website.

Malawi: From tobacco growing to fish farming

This inspiring story from the Nyasa Times.

Namibia and Malawi: a report of the World Bank about corruption and tax evasion

A sobering report but what fixes?

Malawi: tobacco versus development

In the FCA bulletin 110 (page 4) Laura Green (Berlin) and Marty Otanez (Denver) sign a very interesting article about the situation in Malawi and how to develop effective strategies to help exploited tobacco farmers.

Picture credit Marty Otanez

Malawi: a new tax on cigarettes to curb smuggling

From Afrique en ligne.

Malawi and Mozambique: US tobacco leaf company charged of bribery by the SEC

Marty Otanez pointed to this information about 2 tobacco leaf companies charged with bribery. Evoked is bribery in Malawi and Mozambique by Universal. Read below.

Child Labour in Malawi's tobacco farms: on UK's TV Channel 4

The reporter Jenny Kleeman writes about the program in her blog. The industry run ECLT Foundation provides its comments. A more detailed presentation written in 2008 by Corpwatch with a comment posted by ECLT. The more things change...

Child labor in Malawi's tobacco farms mentioned during Philip Morris annual shareholders assembly

A proposal sponsored by Father Michael Crosby of the Capuchin Order asked for Philip Morris not to purchase from farms where there is child labor. It did not pass but it is a reminder of the importance of continuing to push for the eradication of child labor, mostly driven by the low pay of tobacco workers.

Read the full text of the proposal below.

Malawi: lawsuit against a tobacco control advocate.

Kondwani Bell Munthali, Coordinator of the Smoke Free Malawi Project sent us this update. It includes news about a libel and defamation complaint against activist John Kapito by Nyasa manufacturing.

Malawi: des milliers d'enfants travaillant dans les plantations de tabac empoisonnés à la nicotine

Des milliers d'enfants travaillant dans les plantations de tabac au Malawi souffrent d'un empoisonnement à la nicotine équivalant à la consommation de 50 cigarettes par jour, a dénoncé PLAN, une organisation de défense des droits des enfants dans un rapport (en anglais) intitulé Hard Work, Long Hours, Little Pay.

Malawi: tobacco growers in tears

This article in National News about the low prices paid to tobacco growers.

Malawi: A call to stop child labor on tobacco farms

Auction Holdings Limited Malawi, has called on tobacco farmers to stop using children in their farms.
The company’s General Manager Evance Matabwa said this practice of using children to work in tobacco estates is against international labour laws.
Source: AllAfrica

Malawi: China to invest in tobacco

China is discussing a huge tobacco investment in the African nation of Malawi. This became known after the recent visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi to the country, and according to Chinese Ambassador Lin Songtian.

Source: atcri

Teen smoking up in Malawi

This post was first published by Kondwani Munthali on Tobacco Free Malawi.

Malawian youngsters are ranked number three among 12 African countries currently implementing a tobacco smoking control African situational analysis (ATSA) programme, figures from World Health Organisation revealed this week.

Malawi: DDT, tobacco and malaria

Top civil servant in the Ministry of Health Chris Kang’ombe on Wednesday admitted that the country’s reliance on tobacco has affected the fight against malaria as there are resistance to the adoption of use of Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane (DDT) spraying which is proven to eradicate the fatal disease.

First published on Tobacco Free Malawi.

Child labour and trafficking in Malawi

From this article.
Source: Nyasa Times

Tobacco giant BAT 'breaks youth code' - BBC News

Bannatyne Takes on Big Tobacco on BBC 2  Channel Tue 1 Jul, 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm  60mins

Duncan Bannatyne, multi-millionaire and the scourge of Dragons' Den, journeys to Africa to explore the rise in the number of kids smoking, and the activities of one tobacco company in particular.

He uncovers evidence of the extraordinary marketing tactics of BAT which he believes are encouraging kids to smoke. His sharp business brain forensically gathers the evidence and then confronts the company back in London.

But this is not just a hard hitting investigation, this is an emotional journey for Bannatyne. An ex-smoker himself, he loves Africa and in his travels he has a laugh with a tobacco grower, is teased by the dinner ladies at a school in Malawi where he helps to cook the dinner and he has to deal with the cockroach in his hotel room. He also meets kids as young as 11 who are not only smoking ten a day, but also trying to make a living selling cigarettes.

Stop the exploitation of tobacco workers in Malawi

There is a crisis for the tobacco farmers and farm workers in Malawi.

Many are facing extreme poverty and little or no money for their work in tobacco fields.

Despite pressure from the Tobacco Tenants and Allied Workers Union of Malawi, the trade union representing the country's tobacco farmers and farm workers, national legislation to improve the living and working conditions introduced in the 1990s is being delayed.

In the spirit of FCTC Article 17 on support for economically viable alternatives for tobacco farmers and providing farmers with improved livelihoods to transition to healthy and environment-friendly crops, support Malawi tobacco farmers’ efforts to create a regulatory framework to improve their labor and human rights.

Sign the online petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/stoptob/petition.html

La culture du tabac en crise au Malawi

Les producteurs de tabac au Malawi rencontrent de plus en plus de difficultés en raison de la baisse des prix sur le marché. Un intéressant article repris par All Africa.