Day One of the Africa Tobacco Situational Analyses (ATSA) Meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa

Johannesburg, South Africa - February 1 2011 marked the opening of the three-day Africa Tobacco Situational Analyses (ATSA) Meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, organized by the American Cancer Society and the World Health Organization Tobacco Free Initiative (WHO/TFI), in partnership with the University of Cape Town School of Economics and the University of Pretoria School of Dentistry, and with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. More than 100 representatives of the African tobacco control community gathered to discuss the work undertaken by the ATSA country teams over the past years, using this opportunity to examine progress and discuss current issues and challenges related to the fight against tobacco on the continent. South African Director General of Health, Malebona Precious Matsoso, inaugurated the meeting by speaking about current tobacco control policy initiatives in South Africa and other recent achievements, using the example of how smoking was given a “red card” during the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, and was banned from all stadiums. She also talked about the opportunities for the rest of the continent to move forward with the primary prevention of tobacco consumption, highlighting that “the challenge is to keep the prevalence of tobacco use low, despite the fact that the African continent —with its 700 million people, half of whom are under 16 — provides a great market for tobacco companies." Representatives of the ATSA initiative reported on the results of their analyses and advocacy efforts, shared important lessons learned from their work, and discussed the challenges other countries can anticipate with similar undertakings and related recommendations. Common themes were identified among different countries, such as the difficulty of reconciling tobacco control with the economic livelihood that exists in relation to tobacco farmers in countries like Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia; the advantages of establishing realistic objectives within countries, such as focusing on smoke-free laws at the sub-national (state or municipal) levels; the advocacy opportunities revealed by “political mapping” analyses; the importance of working with the media to raise public awareness and actively involve government agencies; and challenges in engaging countries’ legislatures for the adoption of policies compliant with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). During the afternoon, break-out groups encouraged discussion based on country case studies on taxation, graphic health warnings, smoke free spaces, advertisement bans, and partnerships between civil society and governments. This first day was a great opportunity for many of the participants to establish new relationships with their colleagues from the continent, who enthusiastically shared their respective experiences on how their work had allowed them to gain a better understanding of the processes that create or hinder windows of opportunity for tobacco control in Africa.

From left to right: Jacqui Drope, Director of Tobacco Control at ACS; Patricia Lambert, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Ms Malebona Precious Matsoso, South African Director General of Health; Dr. Stella Anyangwe, WHO representative for South Africa and Zanele Mthembu, Consultant for American Cancer Society.