Background information for the Call for Expressions of Interest for setting up Resource Center for WHO tobacco control project in Africa
30 April 2010 - WHO Tobacco Free Initiative has obtained a grant from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to build capacity for tobacco control in the WHO African Region. The Project aims to reduce the burden of diseases and death caused by tobacco use, thereby protecting present and future generations in Africa from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke.
There are two overarching and complimentary objectives for this effort:
- To implement a set of high-priority tobacco control policy changes, tailored from the demand reduction strategies identified under the WHO FCTC, in 2-3 countries, and support similar changes in 2-3 neighboring countries in the first 3 years of the project; and
- To increase in-country and in-region expertise and capacity to sustain implemented changes, support further in-country efforts and initiate similar tobacco control policy movement in other countries in the subregion.
The establishment of a Resource Center, in Africa, is designed to achieve the second objective.
The Resource Center would address the regional tobacco control capacity gaps such as
- Technical: Good practices, lessons learned, policy and technical toolkits, norms and guidelines, etc., for African countries or adapted to the African context as appropriate;
- Institutional: National and subregional resources, including human resource capacity and a pool of experts, institutional and management capacity, infrastructure, internal and external funding; and
- Cross-sector and cross-country: Networking and partnership-building for collaboration that is multisectoral and multidisciplinary, at both the national and sub national levels.
The Resource Center would be designed in such a manner that its activities become self-financing in time. A strong support and commitment of the national government to the establishment of the Resource Center would be critical to ensure the active participation of the Government from the very beginning.
WHO/TFI invites reputed and established institutions/organizations/consortia to submit an expression of interest to act as a Resource Center for implementing the WHO tobacco control policy change and capacity-building project in Africa.
WHO, through a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, intends to provide technical and financial support in the amount of approximately 3.5 million USD for a period of 5 years to the selected Resource Center.