[The state of research in French-speaking Africa]

Abstract

Given the mortality and morbidity attributed to tobacco worldwide, global funding for tobacco control research, is greatly insufficient If compared with the fight against other diseases, tobacco control remains grossly under-funded. Data necessary to monitor the tobacco epidemic is inadequate even in the richer countries. It is therefore hardly surprising that studies on the state of data in developing countries and especially in francophone Africa conclude that standardised and comparable data are missing in all fields of tobacco control. Data available is often old, incomplete and hardly representative. This can be explained by both the lack of adequate capacity to conduct research and the low priority given to tobacco control as a health problem. In poor countries and regions where other diseases such as malaria and AIDS seem more pressing, the tobacco industry has almost no difficulty in using unfounded arguments about its contribution to the economy. Public authorities are thus intimidated by the threats of economic loss or attracted by immediate economic gains. This too often weakens the political will to act on issues of tobacco control. The little data available for the region, however, is alarming. Tobacco consumption has rapidly increased in recent years. This trend is confirmed by tobacco industry projected expansion in the region. Consequently, research programmes for Francophone African countries need to take into account the emergency of the situation, the context of Francophone Africa and, as well as, the limited resources available. Recently global research programmes such as the "Global Youth Tobacco Survey" have begun helping low-income countries in addressing the need for comparable and standardised data. The subject of an appropriate research agenda for tobacco control for low income countries has been discussed by international, national agencies, as well as, the NGO community in the context of the development of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Given that the most important factors as regards changing tobacco use in a population include changing its social acceptability, as well as, providing a legal framework for tobacco control, recommendations for appropriate research for low-income countries have highlighted the need to define research programmes able to support actions which will produce the largest impact on the population, will serve to accelerate the ratification of the FCTC, will hasten the adoption of low-cost evidence-based measures such as tax increases, complete bans on advertising, smoke-free legislation, and will stop the tobacco industry's offensive in these countries. Large international initiatives to support the development of tobacco control research in low-income countries and particularly Africa have been launched. However, because of the language barriers, African Francophone countries may not have the same access to them than their Anglophone counterparts. Special attention should, therefore, be given to strengthen recent initiatives in this field which take into consideration the important dimension of language for Francophone Africa.