The Media Advocacy component of the ATCC aims on one hand to enhance media interest in tobacco control and on the other hand to enhance tobacco control organizations capacities in the strategic use of the media to advancing public policies in their respective countries. 
This component involves developing and implementing an outreach and alliance building plan that focuses on enhancing Alliance membership and maintaining regional and sub-regional communication systems and strategies. We map and analyze the reach of existing advocacy networks in terms of membership, geographical and thematic spread. 
We maintain a Tobacco Control Advocacy Resource Center that aims to coordinate and provide technical assistance and training on priority FCTC intervention areas under the guidance of African tobacco control experts. This resource center serves NGOs throughout the SSA region to rapidly access information specific to their needs. 
Here, we carry out campaigns to prioritize tobacco control within broader health and development agendas by overseeing outreach to sub-regional blocs including ECOWAS, WAEMU and COMESA. We also assist countries to partake in global tobacco control campaigns. 
The ATCC provides technical assistance varied areas including policy development, legislative drafting, coalition-building and management, media advocacy, fundraising and grant management. We also deliver urgent assistance by “rapid response technical assistance teams” assembled to support advocates engaged in time-sensitive work. Africa has been tipped as a continent where high rise in smoking-linked Tuberculosis (TB) will occur by 2050 with huge proportion in death rate. This is the outcome of a new research published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) this October.
Tobacco smoking is a prevalent risk factor for TB. Nearly a fifth of the world’s population either smoke tobacco or use other tobacco products. The authors hold that most cigarettes are smoked in countries with a high prevalence of TB. In most cases, these are places in which tobacco multinationals have expanded their markets e.g. Africa. Dr. Sanjay Basu, one of the authors and his colleagues predicted that smoking may increase the effects of TB. If current smoking trends continue as they were, there will be one million new cases of TB between now and 2050. According to him, high quality campaigns against tobacco use will save millions of lives. Click here to download
Africa Tobacco Control Resource Center
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Uganda is an East African country with population of 33,398,682 and a geographical size of 241, 038sq km. With main industry in agricultural related activities, Uganda has a strong base for production of Cotton, Sugar and Tobacco. It is one of the known tobacco producing country in Africa. Gross Domestic Product, (GDP) real growth is put at 6.6%, with purchasing power of $43.22 billion (2009 est.)
