Tobacco Control Strategic Plan 2022–2026

Objectives

Zambia’s National Tobacco Control Strategic Plan 2022–2026 provides the country’s first multisectoral framework to prevent and control tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke, reverse associated health, social, environmental and economic harms, and contribute to reducing non-communicable diseases.[1][2]It aligns tobacco control with the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Sustainable Development Goal 3.4, Vision 2030, the Eighth National Development Plan and the National Health Strategic Plan 2022–2026.[1]

• Strengthen a Framework Convention on Tobacco Control-compliant policy and legislative environment, including a consolidated tobacco-control Bill, protection of public health policy from tobacco-industry interference, and establishment of a Tobacco Control Committee.[3]
• Reduce tobacco demand by preventing initiation, especially among adolescents, increasing tobacco and nicotine-product taxes to 75% of retail price by the end of the strategic period, creating smoke-free environments, regulating contents, emissions, packaging and labelling, and expanding public education and cessation support.[2][3]
• Reduce tobacco supply by eliminating illicit trade, prohibiting sales to and by minors, and supporting economically viable alternative livelihoods for tobacco growers, workers and sellers.[4]
• Protect people, public health and the environment from tobacco-related hazards, including the harms of smoking and second-hand smoke.[1][4]
• Establish surveillance, research, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, use evidence for planning and enforcement, and submit periodic Framework Convention on Tobacco Control implementation reports to the Conference of the Parties.[1][4]
• Expand tobacco-control programme delivery across all 10 provinces by 2026, improve access to services and tobacco-control-friendly spaces across the continuum of care, and secure treatment modalities, medicines and supplies for tobacco-related ailments.[5]
• Establish innovative financing, resource mobilisation, international collaboration and technical cooperation, including a health fund financed from tobacco taxes to co-finance health promotion and treatment of tobacco-related conditions.[5]

Implementation

The plan adopts a whole-of-government and whole-of-society delivery model, bringing together line ministries, non-health sectors, civil-society organisations, cooperating partners, communities and other state and non-state actors.[1][2]Implementation combines legal reform, taxation, enforcement, communication, cessation services, supply-side controls, research and health-system investment, guided by the provisions and guidelines of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.[1][6]

• Establish and operationalise a National Coordination Mechanism or multisectoral oversight body, using terms of reference and focal points appointed from line ministries and civil society to coordinate tobacco-control action.[1][6]
• Accelerate the tobacco-control Bill and associated legal frameworks, building on existing measures under the Public Health Act 1992 and Statutory Instrument No. 39 of 2008.[6]
• Engage media houses, academics, community leaders, tobacco-control workers, institutional and workplace managers, tobacco growers and relevant public and non-public sectors through consultation, awareness and partnership-building.[3][4]
• Mainstream tobacco control into HIV, maternal and child health, tuberculosis and poverty-reduction programmes, while decentralising prevention and cessation services and building capacity at subnational level.[3][4]
• Deliver demand-reduction interventions through school-based education, public communications, smoke-free awareness, promotion of quitting, training for gatekeepers and tobacco-control personnel, cessation guidance, increased cessation facilities and counsellors, and an active quit line.[6][3][4]
• Implement supply-side measures by monitoring illicit trade, completing consultation on the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, enforcing relevant controls, reviewing restrictions on youth access, and providing information, training and diversification support for alternative livelihoods.[6][4]
• Strengthen provincial delivery through capacity building for programme officers, tobacco-control-friendly care spaces, infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation, equipment, transport, and supplies for tobacco-related treatment.[5]
• Mobilise technical and financial support, including support previously provided through the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control 2030 Project for legislative and policy development, awareness and sensitisation.[6]
• Monitor implementation against Framework Convention on Tobacco Control areas including coordination, industry interference, taxation, smoke-free environments, communication, advertising, cessation, illicit trade, youth access and alternative livelihoods.[6]The available material does not specify a consolidated indicator framework, reporting timetable, evaluation design, surveillance-system architecture or detailed accountability matrix.[6][3][4]

Monitoring & Evaluation

The plan identifies surveillance, research, monitoring and evaluation as a strategic priority for tobacco control, alongside periodic reporting on implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).[1][4]It seeks evidence-based planning, implementation and enforcement, supported by strengthened national, regional and international research and collaboration.[3][4]

• Establish surveillance, research, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to inform tobacco-control action.[1]
• Strengthen research programmes and collaboration to support evidence-based planning, implementation and enforcement.[3][4]
• Gather information through stakeholder consultation, including engagement with government, civil society, academia, communities, media, tobacco-control workers, growers and other relevant sectors.[3][4]
• Submit periodic WHO FCTC implementation reports to the Conference of the Parties through the Convention Secretariat.[4]
• Monitor implementation across WHO FCTC areas including coordination, tobacco-industry interference, taxation, smoke-free environments, communication, advertising, cessation, illicit trade, youth access and alternative livelihoods.[6]

Governance and accountability are intended to operate through a multisectoral oversight structure, described more specifically as a proposed Tobacco Control Committee and National Coordination Mechanism.[1][6]The National Coordination Mechanism was being established, with draft terms of reference and appointment of focal points from line ministries and civil society under way.[6]The plan also calls for protecting public health policy from tobacco-industry interference and for constituting the Tobacco Control Committee.[3]

Implementation weaknesses identified include limited monitoring, surveillance and enforcement of smoke-free policies, as well as weaknesses affecting product regulation and disclosure requirements.[6]Operational priorities include strengthening enforcement and surveillance, expanding capacity-building to subnational levels, and developing a communication plan to support tobacco-control action.[6]Tobacco-control programme officers are to be supported across all 10 provinces by 2026, although the provided material does not set out associated performance indicators.[5]

The available material does not specify a consolidated indicator framework, indicator definitions or baselines, reporting frequency, surveillance datasets, evaluation methodology, independent review arrangements, or a detailed accountability matrix assigning responsibilities.[1][6][3][4][5]

Costing & Financing

Financing combines tobacco taxation, external technical and financial support, and planned innovative financing and resource mobilisation.[6][5]The source identifies a five-year service-delivery package, SP 7, totalling 255,904,246.36, and an innovative financing, collaboration and technical-cooperation package, SP 8, totalling 5,805,886.16; it does not specify the currency or the period covered by individual annual figures.[5]

• Fund provincial tobacco-control programme delivery and capacity building for programme officers.[5]
• Provide tobacco-control-friendly spaces, infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation, equipment, transport, treatment modalities, medicines and medical supplies for tobacco-related ailments.[5]
• Create a health fund financed from tobacco taxes to co-finance health promotion and treatment of tobacco-related medical conditions.[5]
• Mobilise local, regional and international collaboration, technical cooperation and innovative financing.[5]

Tobacco tax is identified as both a public-health measure and a potential source of health financing.[6][5]The current tax is reported as 41.4% of the retail price of the most-sold cigarette brand, below the cited WHO FCTC recommendation of 75%; the plan seeks to increase taxes on tobacco and nicotine products to 75% by the end of the strategic period.[6][3]The material does not specify how tax revenues would be earmarked, the expected yield of the proposed health fund, or the fiscal arrangements for allocating funds to tobacco-control activities.[5]

Illicit tobacco trade is estimated at 30% and is associated with an approximate annual public-revenue loss of 450 million Zambian kwacha.[6][3]This loss is presented as an economic rationale for strengthening measures against illicit trade, including monitoring and enforcement of the relevant protocol.[4]Tobacco use is also described as imposing a global economic cost of 1.4 trillion United States dollars each year.[7]

Although technical and financial support from the WHO FCTC 2030 Project has supported legislative and policy development, awareness and sensitisation activities, the source does not provide a total national implementation budget, detailed financing plan by activity, quantified funding gap, expenditure projections, or economic assumptions for the full 2022–2026 strategic plan.[6][1][3][4]