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Turning Tobacco Control Policy into Action Across Africa

A country-led platform for implementation, financing, and peer learning

Across Africa, many governments have adopted strong tobacco control policies. The challenge is turning those commitments into consistent implementation and enforcement.

The Tobacco Policy Action Fund for Africa (TOPAFA), implemented by Management Sciences for Health (MSH) in partnership with the Gates Foundation, helps governments close that gap.

TOPAFA combines catalytic funding, tailored technical assistance, and peer-to-peer learning to help countries advance their own tobacco control priorities, strengthen implementation capacity, and generate practical lessons that can be shared across the continent.

Keywords

Expanding Access to Quality CareImproving Financing and SustainabilityBurkina FasoCôte d'IvoireDemocratic Republic of the CongoEthiopiaNigeriaSenegalUganda

How the partnership works

TOPAFA is designed around government priorities and implementation needs.
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Country-led action

Governments identify the policy and implementation challenges they want to address, ensuring support is aligned with national priorities.
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Catalytic funding and technical assistance

Results-based grants are paired with targeted technical support to help countries move from policy commitment to implementation.
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African technical expertise

A technical committee of experienced African tobacco control institutions and practitioners provides context-specific expertise and strengthens the support available to participating governments.
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Peer learning across countries

TOPAFA Learning Labs create space for governments to exchange experience, solve practical problems together, and adapt successful approaches across settings.
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Partnership in action

In its first phase, TOPAFA supported 10 countries across sub-Saharan Africa to advance tobacco control measures including:

  • tobacco tax and price policies;
  • smoke-free public spaces;
  • graphic health warnings;
  • restrictions on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship; and
  • stronger domestic financing for tobacco control.
Phase 2 builds on those lessons while supporting a group of Exemplar countries to advance and scale effective approaches, strengthen sustainability, and generate lessons for wider tobacco control action across Africa.

Building a learning platform for Africa

TOPAFA is not only a grant mechanism. It is a platform for governments to test approaches, share what works, and build a stronger body of African experience around tobacco-control implementation.

By connecting country leadership with catalytic financing, African technical expertise, and structured peer learning, TOPAFA helps turn individual country progress into lessons that can inform action across the continent.

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Explore our Impact

May 31, 2024Story

Africa’s Progress Against Tobacco: The Impact of TOPAFA  

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November 10, 2021Country

Nigeria