Africa Tobacco Control Resource Center

The ATCC is a coordinated effort to reduce tobacco use in Sub-Sahara Africa led by the American Cancer Society and including the Africa Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA), AfricaTobacco Control Regional Initiative(ATCRI), Framework Convention Alliance (FCA - AFRO region),Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK) and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union).

How it came about:In June 2009, ATCA, ATCRI and the FCA metto discuss how to work synergistically with the scarce resources available to achieve maximum impact in advancing tobacco control on the African continent. That meeting identified priority programming areas for tobacco control and strategies for an all-inclusive pan–African implementation plan. In addition, the three organisations agreed to form a partnership to submit a proposal for the planned Call for Letters of Intent by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Recognizing the need to maximize synergy and ensure close coordination, ACS, CTFK, and The Union agreed to come together in a consortium of African and global organizations to share and leverage resources for tobacco control in the region.

According to the WHO, African countries are experiencing the highest increase in the rate of tobacco use amongst developing countries, with consumption increasing by 4.3% per year. While there is enormous variation from country to country within the SSA region, the lack of tobacco control infrastructure in most SSA countries is striking. There are few tobacco control professionals and few well funded tobacco control programs or organizations in most countries. Exacerbating the situation, there are few experienced tobacco control researchers within NGOs or universities, creating a barrier to policy development because the evidence base for action is lacking.

The impetus for change, combined with the dire statistics facing SSA, makes the need for sustained tobacco control interventions imperative. Promoting effective tobacco control policies and developing a sustainable infrastructure for tobacco control movements could help prevent the full-scale development of a tobacco epidemic on the African continent.

The ATCC thus aims at preventing an epidemic of tobacco caused disease and death in SSA by facilitating the implementation of the evidence-based tobacco control measures and strategies in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) at the local, national and regional levels. The four main objectives of the Consortium are:

• To facilitate the implementation of tobacco control policies at the country level that are consistent with the FCTC, with a special emphasis on public education and policy analysis related to: Increasing the price of all tobacco products; Placing graphic health warning labels on tobacco packaging; Promoting smoke-free air laws, and; Achieving tobacco advertising, sponsorship and promotion bans.
• To advance tobacco control policy regionally through advocacy and by integrating tobacco control into existing development and health agendas;
• To protect tobacco control policies by countering tobacco industry efforts to undermine them; and
• To promote effective policy development through research.

To achieve these objectives, the Consortium coordinates a number of activities includingmapping, developing and disseminating technical resources through a virtual resource centre; supporting grassroots efforts to make sure effective policies are developed and implemented through a small grants program; identifying and supporting emerging tobacco control leaders; countering tobacco industry tactics through monitoring and media advocacy; expanding research output and capacity; and integrating tobacco control into regional health and development agendas.

American Cancer Society (ACS) – As the Managing Organisation, ACS provides overall guidance on consortium governance, program design and implementation, administration of sub-grants and contracts, and accountability to the project funders for all activities and outcomes.

The Africa Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) - ATCA coordinates the campaign-related aspects of the project, including a campaign to raise taxes on tobacco products at national and regional levels; a campaign to prioritise tobacco control within health, economic and development agendas of governments and regional organisations in SSA; the development of the next generation of African tobacco control leaders; and the strengthening of the African tobacco control movement through outreach and alliance building.

The Africa Tobacco Control Regional Initiative (ATCRI) - ATCRI coordinates the service-related aspects of the Project, including coordinating the research activities of the Consortium; maintaining the Consortium’s website and facilitating access to material and technical resources for Consortium grantees and other persons working on tobacco control in SSA; coordinating translation of project materials into English, French and Portuguese; and coordinating the use of media advocacy for tobacco control interventions.

The Framework Convention Alliance (FCA)AFRO Region -FCA coordinates continued African participation and leadership in the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) process by supporting African advocates to attend official FCTC meetings and by providing briefing materials to enable advocates to support their governments to secure effective tobacco control measures, as well as coordinating the combined shadow reporting and industry monitoring initiative.

The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK) -CTFK provides technical assistance in areas including legal/legislative review, media advocacy and policy research, as well as strengthening Consortium grant-making by sharing lessons learned in administering major policy-focused grant-making programs and by coordinating its grant-making efforts with the Consortium. 

The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union)-The Union also provides technical assistance in areas including management and leadership training and technical trainings on key FCTC interventions in tobacco control, including tobacco advertising and promotion, smoke-free places, pack warnings and labeling, and taxation.  In addition, The Union will also share its experience in engaging key stakeholders in promoting tobacco control as a development issue, and facilitate access to its members working on TB, lung health and HIV projects in Africa so as to introduce them to tobacco control. The Union will also leverage contacts within French media for tobacco control.

The ATCC Project has 09 staff comprising of a Project Coordinator, Resource Centre Coordinator, Media Advocacy and Communication Coordinator, Language Translation Coordinator, Fellowships and Outreach Coordinator, Tax Campaign Manager, Development Campaign Manager, FCTC Coordinator and 2 administrative assistants. In addition to this, the project has an IT consultant who works only part time on the project.

Most of the staff positions were recruited by open advertisements and interviews while few positions were filled by existing tobacco control staff in the Consortium partner organisations whose job descriptions were adapted to the new Project’s activities. These 3 posts, crucial to the effective management of the project, went to highly competent tobacco control experts who were involved in the design of the ATCC projects. The criteria for recruitment included prior tobacco control and/or relevant experience, suitable professional qualifications for the job, and the need to have a multilingual, international staff.

Due to the need to create an effective team and maximise the available institutional resources of the partner organisations it was decided that all Project Staff would work out of either the offices of the Africa Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) in Lomé or of the Africa Tobacco Control Regional Initiative (ATCRI) in Lagos.   

The ATCC sponsors a competitive grants program which is open to NGOs and academic institutions from Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, the Gambia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia.

 For more information on grant opportunities offered through the Consortium, please either contact ATCA or ATCRI

The overall ATCC budget amounts to $7 million dollars spread out over five years. As part of the principles guiding the Consortium, the vast majority of project funds will be used for program expenditures in Africa. 

Total budget - $7 million

Sub-grants to African organizations - $5.5 million

ACS - $1.5 million

An independent evaluator will monitor and evaluate the progress, efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of this five-year initiative. The evaluation will focus on both process and outcome measures of the four main objectives of the project, and is expected to measure the effectiveness of the ATCC’s contributions to tobacco control as measured by advocacy and policy change; community mobilization and alliance development/strengthening; strengthened institutional capacity and effectiveness; and increased research capacity on the continent.