AFRICA RISES AS ONE AGAINST TOBACCO

BY ANNIE ZULU

THE first three-day Africa Conference on Tobacco Control and Development jointly organised by the Center for Tobacco Control in Africa (CTCA) and The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF)  concluded yesterday with a strong call to action to address the debilitating impact of tobacco use on the health of Africans and the continent’s economies.

Nearly 600 stakeholders from across the continent registered for the gathering, which saw 35 speakers, 15 conference sessions and 42 research presentations. 

The presenters and delegates urged African countries and partners to increase investment in local research to support tobacco control initiatives and enhance advocacy and partnerships with dynamic evidence-based research.

 

The conference leadership noted that tobacco control implementation requires flexibility to align to government priorities and the changing governance dynamics. 

The paucity of data on the continent has adversely impacted promulgation of effective policies on tobacco control in many African countries.

 

The official conference communique encouragesd African countries to introduce policies that will disincentivise tobacco use. Increased taxation on tobacco products is proven to encourage quitting by making cigarettes unaffordable. 

Yet, Africa lags behind in the introduction and enforcement of tobacco tax policies, partly due to tobacco industry interference.

The delegates were alarmed that emerging smokeless tobacco products are creating new challenges for tobacco control, complicated by increasing usage of tobacco within Africa’s large youth population.

“There is need for robust laws to respond to these challenges – especially by being vigilant towards these novel products and adopting strategies to counter the ever-changing industry tactics.

“Local research will result in irrefutable messaging against the tobacco industry and promote understanding of local setting and local political setting,” said conference chairperson Professor William Bazeyo, who is the director of the CTCA.

In his closing remarks, Dr William Maina, Senior Project Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO) AFRO, called the conference a historic event that built synergy among many of the leaders in tobacco control research, programme design, policy implementation, community engagement and monitoring of both the performance against tobacco control targets and the industry’s antics.

“This conference is a stepping stone. We conclude the conference on a clearer trajectory, having identified what we know and what we need to know to tackle the tobacco epidemic,” said Dr Maina.

The conference was supported by various partners including WHO AFRO, the Research Unit on the Economics of Excisable Products (REEP), Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK), African Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA), Africa Centre for Tobacco Industry Monitoring and Policy Research (ATIM), The International Union against Tuberculosis and lung Disease and the Tax Justice Network-Africa (TJN-A).