Public health advocates from 12 African countries have converged in Lagos for the third edition of the Africa Centre for Tobacco Industry Monitoring and Policy Research, ATIM, Tobacco Industry Monitoring, TIM training, aimed at strengthening the continent’s capacity to monitor, expose and counter tobacco industry interference in public health policies.
The five-day training, hosted in Nigeria for the first time, has brought together participants from Kenya, Nigeria, Benin, Botswana, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia, Senegal and Zimbabwe.
The programme is facilitated by an international team led by tobacco control expert, Prof. Lekan Ayo-Yusuf, Head of the School of Health Systems and Public Health at the University of Pretoria and Director of ATIM.
Other facilitators include lecturers from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom, alongside policy advocates and researchers from the United States, Nigeria, Brazil and Togo.
Speaking at the opening of the training, Ayo-Yusuf said tobacco industry interference in public health policy remains a major challenge across Africa, undermining tobacco control efforts and contributing to preventable deaths.
He said the course is designed to move advocates from merely reacting to industry interference to proactively anticipating, monitoring and countering such activities through evidence-based action.
“The course is intended to strengthen the capacity of tobacco control advocates to effectively monitor and counteract tobacco industry interference in public health policies in Africa,” he said.
According to him, participants will acquire practical skills in identifying and documenting tobacco industry interference, analysing emerging industry tactics, interpreting industry documents, identifying front groups and generating evidence to support policy advocacy.
He added that the training would also equip participants with the knowledge to develop effective tobacco control policies and advocacy strategies for their organisations and countries.
Also speaking, Executive Director of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi, warned that the tobacco industry continues to adopt new strategies to influence public opinion and policy, making it necessary to build a new generation of tobacco control advocates.
“Some of us have been in tobacco control advocacy for close to three decades and we recognise the need to build the next generation of advocates,” he said.
Oluwafemi noted that participants include government officials, civil society organisations, economists and public health advocates, adding that the training would strengthen their ability to address emerging industry tactics.
He also expressed concern over what he described as the industry’s promotion of “a false narrative of harm reduction,” saying advocates must stay informed to effectively counter misleading information targeting young people.
“It is necessary to ensure advocates get updates about how the industry continues to spread misleading narratives to get our youths and children addicted and how governments should enforce the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and relevant national laws,” he said.
Participants described the programme as timely and impactful.
A youth tobacco control advocate with the Kenya Tobacco Control Alliance and Health Promotion, Jackline Mbone Juma, said the training had provided participants with practical skills in industry monitoring, research and accessing tobacco industry documents.
She added that the programme had also deepened participants’ understanding of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Similarly, Emmanuel Onwuka, a journalist and Communications Officer with the Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance, NTCA, said the training comes at a critical time as the tobacco industry develops new products and marketing strategies targeting young people.
According to him, the knowledge gained would improve his capacity to monitor, document and report tobacco industry interference across Africa.
ATIM, based at the University of Pretoria, is a specialised African centre for tobacco industry monitoring, intelligence and policy research.
It supports research, policy protection and capacity building in line with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, while its bilingual TIM course is open to advocates, researchers, academics, journalists and government policymakers across the continent.