Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death among adults. Every day, 13,000 people around the world die from tobacco related illness and disease. More than 600,000 deaths per year worldwide are caused by second-hand smoke alone, with women and children disproportionately affected. Tobacco use is a significant factor for several diseases and a major contributor to global morbidity. The Africa region is at an early stage of the tobacco epidemic with the prevalence of tobacco smokers among the youth in African countries ranging from 8% to 43% for boys and 5% to 30% for girls.

Tobacco use in Africa is more than a health problem. It is both a development and health problem. Tobacco use and poverty are inextricably linked. Tobacco use causes ill-health, consumes family income and money spent on tobacco is money denied for other essentials such as, food, education and medical care. Tobacco use kills people in their productive years, hence breeding poverty.

The seemingly economic benefits of tobacco farming in areas of job creation, income to farmers, taxes and export revenues to governments are negated by the adverse health effects of tobacco use through huge health expenditure on illness caused by tobacco use, less productivity and premature death due to tobacco related illnesses. The fact that tobacco use exacerbates poverty and hinders economic development needs to be recognised.

In light of the above threat posed by potential increases in tobacco growing and use in African countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for establishment of a regional centre of excellence to spearhead tobacco control in Africa. In the same vain, stakeholders in a meeting in Ghana in June 2008 resolved to form an African Tobacco Control Hub to work with governments and non government organisations and other partners to enhance the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). It is against this background that the Centre for Tobacco Control in Africa was established under the WHO/ TFI service agreement.

CTCA was established in July 2011 by WHO, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).  The Centre is mandated to provide technical and institutional support to governments in Africa in the areas of policy formulation, legislation and enforcement of tobacco control, as well as building and sustaining institutional capacity for tobacco control. This is done through offering technical, institutional and cross sector support for tobacco control at national and regional levels. 

Vision: To be a sustainable, leading centre of excellence in empowering and facilitating tobacco control to achieve  a tobacco-free Africa. I

Mission: To pool evidence, build partnerships, mobilize resources, build capacity, and create tools to advance tobacco control in Africa. The ultimate aim is to reduce the consumption of tobacco by supporting governments in implementing evidence-based tobacco control strategies in Africa.

The ultimate aim is to reduce the consumption of tobacco by supporting governments in implementing evidence-based tobacco control strategies in Africa.

Our niche: Enhancing the capacity of governments in Africa to implement evidence based tobacco control interventions as per the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control ( FCTC.)

Host Institution: Based in Uganda, East Africa, CTCA is hosted by the School of Public Health at Makerere University’s College of Health Sciences, ( MakSPH);  http://www.musph.ac.ug.