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African Tobacco Control Stakeholders Gather in Johannesburg
Tuesday, 01 February 2011 05:27
JollofNews - African tobacco control stakeholders will today commence a meeting on the final consultation on the African
Tobacco Situational Analysis (ATSA) in the South African city of Johannesburg.Over hundred people involved in tobacco control efforts on the continent are presently in the country for the three day meeting organized by the American
Cancer Society (ACS) in collaboration with the World Health Organization’s Tobacco Free Initiative. The meeting, which runs February 1-3, is being organized in partnership with the University of Cape Town School of Economics and University of Pretoria School of Dentistry.Despite increasing awareness of the looming tobacco epidemic and its potential for upsetting the development process of Sub-Saharan, tobacco control remains a lower health priority for most African governments. Consequently, little or no information exists to track progress on tobacco control activities.
The African Tobacco Situational Analyses (ATSA) initiative stemmed from the Research for International Tobacco Control (RITC) program of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), which, with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), in December 2007 launched a two-year initiative to understand the critical determinants of success for tobacco control in about fourteen Sub-Saharan Africa countries. The findings of this initiative were to inform the development, implementation and enforcement of tobacco control policy interventions across Africa.
Tobacco consumption in Africa is reported to have increased faster than in the developing world as a whole. This is contrary to existing limited evidence which indicates that the majority of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are in the early stages of the tobacco epidemic.
The Johannesburg meeting, according to the organizers, is intended to showcase the situational analyses and policy work of the ATSA teams as the successes and lessons learned are revealing and critical to enhancing future tobacco control policy and program efforts across the region. It draws participants from all 18 countries that participated in the project in various capacities.
“Limited research on tobacco control was available in Africa prior to the start of the ATSA project in 2009,” noted Oluwafemi Akinbode, Director of the African Tobacco Control Regional Initiative (ATCRI).
Today, he added, the “huge and valuable data collected in the 18 ATSA countries is continuously enhancing the efforts of tobacco control advocates, researchers and decision makers in influencing policies in their respective countries.”
The Lagos based Africa Tobacco Control Regional Initiative is part of a six member Consortium managed by the American Cancer Society, which focuses on reducing tobacco use in sub-Saharan Africa by supporting effective tobacco control policy at the national and regional level. ATCC is a key player in the African Tobacco Situational Analyses initiative.
Given the evolving trend of tobacco control efforts on the continent, the Johannesburg meeting is also viewed as an opportunity to highlighting other initiatives such as the African Tobacco Control Consortium and the WHO/TFI project on building institutional capacity for tobacco control in Africa.
The new partnerships between the ACS and the University Of Cape Town School Of Economics and the University Of Pretoria School Of Dentistry will also be highlighted at this gathering.
Written by Kemo Cham
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