A new report from the African Tobacco Control Alliance praises the legal and administrative steps taken by the Ethiopian government in its bid to shield the public from the harms of tobacco use.
This year’s Africa Tobacco Industry Interference Index identifies Ethiopia as one of the continent’s rare examples of firm resistance to industry pressure.
The document prepared by civil society organizations across the region ranks Ethiopia among the lowest-scoring nations for tobacco industry interference, and attributes the success to strict prohibitions on industry partnerships, aggressive restrictions on contact between government officials and the industry, and a near total absence of conflicts of interest within government institutions.
One of the report’s most prominent findings concerns Ethiopia’s refusal to allow tobacco companies to participate in major national projects.
“The tobacco industry was not allowed to take part in the city building project spearheaded by the prime minister because of laws that prohibit it from impacting public health,” reads the document.
The restriction stems from a six-year-old proclamation which explicitly forbids government bodies from partnering with tobacco companies.
The report notes that the Ethiopian Food and Drug Administration (EFDA) has made “great efforts to prevent any current or future collaborations between government entities and the tobacco industry.”
The index also identifies Ethiopia as one of only two countries, alongside Uganda, where no senior government official was found to have joined the tobacco industry or vice versa during the reporting period.
“Countries such as Uganda and Ethiopia have no record of conflict of interest of any senior government official joining the tobacco industry or vice versa,” it reads.
The report notes that the Ethiopian government has withdrawn fully from the formerly state-owned National Tobacco Enterprise through full privatization of its share, which was sold to industry giant Japan Tobacco International (JTI).
“Government officials have since then not held a place on the board or any other position,” it reads.
In assessing the strength of legal protections, the index finds that Ethiopia and Chad are the only two countries with all key preventive measures required under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC),
“Countries like Chad and Ethiopia have all the preventive measures in place to guide officials in their interaction with the tobacco industry,” it reads. The measures include restrictions on gifts, mandatory disclosures, limitations on interactions with industry representatives, and formal rules to prevent conflicts of interest.
Ethiopia also performs better than the majority of African countries on transparency, an achievement attributed to laws requiring government institutions to document any interactions with the industry. According to the report, Ethiopia maintains a registry of such interactions.
Although transparency is not perfect, Ethiopia scores significantly lower or better than regional peers in the category of ‘Lack of Transparency.’
The Index’s scoring model also places Ethiopia in the best-performing tier for limiting unnecessary interactions. According to the document, “restrictions exist in several countries, including Senegal, Botswana, Ethiopia and Uganda”.
Countries such as Malawi, Zambia, and Madagascar were found to have the highest levels of unnecessary interactions, highlighting the relative strength of Ethiopia’s approach.
Ethiopia also ranks among countries with the least corporate social responsibility (CSR) interference from tobacco companies. The Index’s CSR table shows Ethiopia scoring at the lowest level of CSR activity by the tobacco industry—significant because CSR is widely used by tobacco companies to build influence.
The broader report warns that Africa remains a key focus for global tobacco companies due to its youthful population, expanding markets, and comparatively weak regulatory systems.
The African Tobacco Control Alliance is a network of civil society organizations in 39 countries working to limit the detrimental effects of tobacco on the continent.
