Last week, in partnership with the Ministry of Health of Nigeria and the University of Cape Town, Development Gateway (DG) launched the Tobacco Control Data Initiative (TCDI) Nigeria Dashboard. The Dashboard is a website that is a “one-stop-shop” to access the relevant data that Nigeria’s policymakers need to advance tobacco control legislation.
In June, DGers Aminata Camara Badji, the West & Central Africa Coordinator for TCDI, and Seember Ali, DG’s Nigeria Country lead for TCDI, sat down for a conversation about the Dashboard and its usability for stakeholders.
Meeting Stakeholder Needs
During the initial assessment, stakeholders frequently described needing data but did not know where to find it or if it could be trusted. The Dashboard is designed to meet this need with validated and reliable information around prevalence, taxation, and tobacco harm. Three other topics: industry interference, illicit trade, and shisha will be finalized and on the dashboard by the end of 2022.
TCDI has worked to ensure the Dashboard will be both easy for stakeholders to use and that it contains relevant information. Stakeholders were particularly interested in Nigeria-specific information or examples of other countries in Africa.
Unique Features
One unique feature is a map of cigarette prices across ECOWAS countries over time. This feature allows stakeholders to compare policy decisions across similarly-situated countries and their impacts.
