Translating global lessons, improving local practice: Tobacco control case-studies from Kenya and Uganda's post-field epidemiology training program fellowships

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death globally and kills nearly 6 million people annually. To combat this epidemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) negotiated the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and developed the MPOWER technical package of evidence-based interventions. The MPOWER package outlines methods for implementing robust tobacco control policies that help countries reduce tobacco use and ensure FCTC compliance. Despite tobacco's threat, competing public health demands often diminish countries' capacity for and commitment to tobacco control. However, Kenya and Uganda recently demonstrated high levels of commitment to the issue by introducing tobacco control post-Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) fellowships. These tobacco control post-FETP fellowships are guided by scientifically grounded competencies and are an innovative way to leverage FETP graduates' epidemiology training to provide in-house tobacco control technical support to ministries of health. The fellows also utilize modules built on the MPOWER technical package to train country-level practitioners to monitor tobacco use, implement evidence-based tobacco control policies, create local subject matter expertise, and encourage government commitment for tobacco control. Africa's nascent tobacco epidemic is unlike most other regions', as tobacco use prevalence remains low throughout much of the continent. The novel post-FETP tobacco control fellowship program presents a unique opportunity to translate global lessons from battling the tobacco epidemic into local-level practice. Case studies of the post-FETP tobacco control fellowships will be presented to demonstrate the program's approach to tobacco control and describe best practices for expanding the program to other countries.