At a glance
- Globally, smoking rates have dropped significantly since 2010, particularly among women, but an estimated 1.2 billion people—nearly one in five adults—still use tobacco.
- Tobacco use remains the world’s leading cause of preventable death, with more than 7 million people dying of tobacco-related diseases each year.
- Despite overall decreases in prevalence, the number of tobacco users in some nations is increasing and products such as e-cigarettes present new challenges, particularly among young people. In countries with available data, young people are nine times more likely than adults to use alternative tobacco and nicotine products.
- Our team’s work is grounded in the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), an international treaty that requires its 182 parties to meet minimum tobacco control provisions.
- We support partners that are working to address the tobacco epidemic in more than 25 countries in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Our strategy
Many parties to the FCTC are low- and middle-income countries, where the need for tobacco control often competes with other pressing health challenges. Policymakers frequently lack timely national data on tobacco-related issues and trends, tobacco industry interference in policy remains high, and the capacity of governments to implement lifesaving measures is uneven.
Our team works to address these challenges by supporting a well-coordinated network of strategic partners based primarily in Africa and Southeast Asia. Since 2008, we have committed US$498 million to support partners that lead national campaigns, conduct domestic research, and provide technical assistance to governments in addressing the tobacco epidemic in more than 30 countries. Bloomberg Philanthropies is a key partner in this work; we coordinate by region and support complementary efforts in many countries.
We also invest in addressing other critical needs in tobacco control, such as alternative livelihoods or alternative crops for tobacco farmers.
We recognize the increasing use and marketing of alternative tobacco and nicotine products, including e-cigarettes, particularly to young people. We are tracking the policy implications and potential impact in countries where we have partners.
While clinical smoking cessation is not a focus of our investments, we acknowledge its critical role in limiting overall tobacco-related death and disease and applaud the efforts of other organizations in this area.
Areas of focus
Tobacco control policy interventions have been proven to save lives. Among them, tobacco taxation offers particular benefits: In addition to reducing tobacco use, it can provide much-needed sustainable domestic revenue to fund a range of public health and development efforts.
Tobacco control policy interventions have been proven to save lives. Among them, tobacco taxation offers particular benefits: In addition to reducing tobacco use, it can provide much-needed sustainable domestic revenue to fund a range of public health and development efforts.
Working with strategic partners in Africa and Southeast Asia, we support education and advocacy at the country level to support implementation of FCTC provisions, particularly tobacco taxes that raise the price of cigarettes for consumers, comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, graphic health warning labels and plain cigarette packaging, and indoor smoking bans. We support local, regional, and global partners that coordinate with and build the capacity of advocates and policymakers to implement these measures. We also invest in building national data platforms that support policymakers in advancing national tobacco control measures.
When policy change approaches are combined with targeted and creative social marketing to shift public perceptions and knowledge related to tobacco use, the two efforts can be mutually reinforcing and lead to significant and lasting change.
When policy change approaches are combined with targeted and creative social marketing to shift public perceptions and knowledge related to tobacco use, the two efforts can be mutually reinforcing and lead to significant and lasting change.
We are investing in African agencies to lead a multi-media effort focused on teen girls, supporting them to live healthy, confident lives, and find support from their peers in doing so. Created with a focus on preventing youth use of tobacco, it is now a multi-issue effort. We also support a new social marketing initiative in Indonesia designed in partnership with teen boys (who account for 95% of all teen smokers in that country).
Why focus on tobacco control?
Worldwide, more than 1.2 billion people use tobacco products—the only consumer products that, when used as directed, will kill up to half of all long-term users. Tobacco use is the world’s leading cause of preventable death, with more than 7 million people dying of tobacco-related diseases each year, including more than 1.6 million nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke.
In recent years, rates of tobacco use have trended downward, with prevalence remaining highest in lower- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2020. Tobacco industry revenues continue to climb, and aggressive marketing of tobacco products in the developing world is increasing, often directed at women and children. In countries that grow tobacco and produce tobacco products, the tobacco industry has enormous influence on public policy and wages relentless and well-funded advertising, promotion, and sponsorship campaigns.
In 2003, the World Health Assembly adopted the FCTC, the world’s first and only global public health treaty. The 182 parties to the FCTC—many of them lower- and middle-income countries—are required to meet minimum standards in tobacco control measures. The FCTC provisions have proven cost-effective and successful in reducing tobacco use.
We see promising opportunities for progress in tobacco control in the following regions:
- Africa. The tobacco epidemic in Africa is at a relatively early stage, and momentum for tobacco control is strong. Since 2008, dozens of sub-Saharan African countries have instituted tobacco tax policies and passed other essential FCTC policies. Tobacco use prevalence on the continent is low, but unlike most other regions, the absolute number of tobacco users has been steadily growing since 2005. As incomes rise for a growing African population, tobacco use could accelerate in the coming years if strong tobacco control measures are not implemented. Now is a critical time to invest in campaigns, research, and implementation support for policies that can prevent a large-scale epidemic.
- Asia. In Southeast Asia, where tobacco consumption is relatively high, there is room to improve tobacco regulation and make a significant health impact as economic growth accelerates. Important advancements in tobacco control policy in recent years have included graphic warning labels and plain packaging in the Southeast Asian countries where we focus our work (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Vietnam). But opportunities exist to dramatically raise tobacco taxes, which would capture billions of dollars in revenue while also lowering smoking rates—especially among young people and low-income populations. Many countries in the region are also tightening policies on alternative tobacco and nicotine products such as e-cigarettes, with several (including Vietnam in 2025) choosing to ban them to prevent further addiction within their population.
Our partners
ACBF works to build the institutional capacity of civil society organizations, support their long-term sustainability, and enable them to focus on tobacco control policy.
ATAF provides expertise to help African governments improve their tax systems.
Based in Togo, ATCA is an alliance of diverse African civil society organizations, with 100+ members in 39 countries.
The Y-ACT initiative, based in Nairobi, Kenya, advances youth-led advocacy in Africa, including efforts to promote youth engagement on FCTC implementation in Kenya, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Zambia.
We invest in the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, which works in low- and middle-income countries around the world to promote proven tobacco control policies.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids supports national implementation of proven policies to reduce tobacco use in Africa and helps lower- and middle-income countries protect and defend their tobacco control laws against litigation.
Development Gateway works with sub-Saharan African governments and research organizations to collect, analyze, disseminate, and use high-quality, country-specific tobacco-related data through the Tobacco Control Data Initiative and the Data on Youth and Tobacco in Africa program.
The Dialogue Group, a marketing agency based in Gaborone, Botswana, manages SKY Girls, a social marketing campaign in Botswana and Zambia that aims to make tobacco use less appealing to teens.
Good Business works with partners in Nigeria, Cote D’Ivoire, and Senegal to implement SKY Girls, a social marketing campaign aimed at making tobacco use less appealing to teens.
Jalin Foundation, a social and behavior change organization based in Jakarta, Indonesia, leads a social marketing initiative designed to reduce tobacco’s appeal among teen boys in Indonesia.
MSH administers the Tobacco Policy Action Fund for Africa, which provides funding and technical assistance to sub-Saharan African governments to support implementation of FCTC-compliant tobacco control policies.
SEATCA works to reduce tobacco use and contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in six low- and middle-income members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), by strengthening implementation of the FCTC.
TJNA supports civil society organizations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Zambia in researching and advocating for effective tobacco tax policies that help prevent and reduce tobacco use.
Tandem is a Nairobi-based agency that leads SKY Girls Kenya, a multi-issue, multimedia social marketing effort.
WHO provides technical assistance to governments in Africa to advance and implement effective tobacco control measures. It helps African and Southeast Asian nations build capacity to effectively regulate alternative tobacco and nicotine products. WHO also leads Tobacco-Free Farms in partnership with World Food Program and FAO.