Vital Strategies

Resolve to save lives:the resolve to save lives program was transferred to a new organization on march 31, 2022. Prior to the program's spinoff, the program had the following accomplishments in 2022:- in ethiopia, the resolve to save lives funded several projects through the Vital Strategies partnership: the ethiopia hypertension control initiative enrolled >12,000 hypertension patients and a preparedness team was embedded in ethiopia's national public health institute to ensure epidemic prevention and response improvements are country-owned and sustainably financed. In addition, a health care worker project supported health care worker protections that drove lower covid-19 infection rates and improved infection prevention and control. - in china, the resolve to save lives-funded cardiovascular health project registered 366,911 hypertension patients, of whom 28,898 have their blood pressure under control; the project also supported salt-reduction interventions in communities/villages, restaurants/canteens, and schools in shandong and anhui provinces. Through close collaboration, the shandong cdc kicked off its supermarket-based sodium reduction intervention and the chinese nutrition society (cns) finalized the report "salt reduction targets in china's food industry, and in partnership with cns and unicef, the nutrition profiling model (npm) was developed for china's national context.

Tobacco control:- mass media work:with a goal of saving 100 million lives, Vital Strategies, as a partner in the bloomberg initiative to reduce tobacco use and at government behest, supported 14 national and subnational strategic media campaigns across 10 countries. Our work with governments supported tax increases in trkiye and pakistan and new smoke-free areas in cities in china, indonesia and the philippines.government partners contributed $26 million to support media campaigns in partnership with Vital. More than 4,300 press stories on these campaigns further amplified messaging on the risks of tobacco to smokers and non-smokers exposed to secondhand smoke. With a new grant from the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention, Vital expanded our tobacco control work to four countries in the eastern mediterranean region. Campaigns on tobacco risks and covid-19 preventive measures were launched in egypt, jordan, iraq and palestine, reaching 52 million people. Vital Strategies and the tobacconomics team at the university of Illinois at chicago launched the seventh edition of the tobacco atlas. The new online edition generated 456 media stories, with a potential reach of more than 1.2 billion people and an ad value equivalent of $11.83 million.in brazil, in partnership with act health promotion, Vital launched a cigarette taxation resource a website, with interactive infographics to show the importance of tax increases. The website served as a model for other countries in the region, such as mexico and colombia, to develop similar platforms.tobacco enforcement and reporting movement (term), Vital's real-time digital monitoring system for online tobacco marketing in india, indonesia, and mexico, published 10 reports and two scientific papers in 2022. These reports generated significant media attention on the risks of digital tobacco marketing. They are also being used by civil society organizations and governments to advocate for stronger tobacco control and consumer protection policies and are encouraging officials to act to protect consumers from digital tobacco marketing.government departments are using term data to strengthen laws or monitor existing ones:- in indonesia, term data is included in a review of the health law no. 109 (2012), which recommends a ban on tobacco advertising, promotions and sponsorship on the internet and tighter regulations on e-cigarettes. The ministry of health is also considering the creation of a government-civil society task force to monitor online tobacco marketing.- in mexico, term data is being used to monitor tobacco marketing after a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship went into effect in february 2022.- in india, term data is being used to inform current tobacco marketing regulations, including the recently issued guidelines by the central consumer protection authority on the prevention of misleading advertisements and endorsements for misleading advertisements, 2022. As it becomes increasingly urgent to take action to address environmental degradation, stop, a tobacco industry watchdog, launched a series of campaigns that capture how the tobacco industry contributes to this pressing public health crisis.in november 2022, stop launched cigarettes = plastics to support tobacco control advocacy at the groundbreaking u.n. plastics pollution treaty negotiations. The campaign reached at least 900,000 people through twitter. Vital Strategies also delivered a statement to international delegates, emphasizing that a decision to ban filters in cigarettes would be a major win for global health. These advocacy efforts appear to be gaining traction: tobacco filters were brought up several times during the conference, including in a written submission from the u.n. high commissioner on human rights.- grants program:in 2022, the grants team managed 165 grants within the bloomberg initiative to reduce tobacco use. Around 356 payments were provided to 124 grantees in 2022 totaling $5,929,794. During 2022, rounds 25-32 of the bi grants program have been administered and managed at different stages. The grants work includes activities related to: a) the bi grants round administration process including the launch process, monitoring mailboxes, coordination with the subgrantee, ctfk grants team and with grantees; b) grants contracts and reporting; c) database management; d) grants status and recording closures; and e) grants support and liaison with internal and external stakeholders. Overall grants in 2022 were managed as expected. The number of grants is stable in comparison to 2021. The pandemic still delayed activities but the implementation rate was consolidated. 98% of the budget for grants in 2022 was successfully obligated. Regular communications with grantees have increased via weekly newsletters, which have had positive feedback. Round applications, reviews, and correspondence are all now done through fluxx. The grants team provided support in the organization for international, regional and national virtual meetings. During 2022, the grants team was also involved in the organization of 2 in-person meetings with bloomberg philanthropies and our partner, campaign for tobacco-free kids, and contributed to the elaboration of 12 monthly reports for the donor, and 4 grants summary reports. The grants team provided regular forecasts to the donor and hq on payment requests and grants to be obligated.- moh capacity building and national policy development:the subgrantee's team in bangladesh assisted in the development of the ntcc rules and liaised with the mof in issuing an order to create a separate economic code for the hds, effectively establishing a tobacco control earmarking mechanism. From 2018 to 2022, fund allocation to annual tobacco control program increased by 324% from 0.9m to 2.9m , fund utilization rate also increased from 21% to 73%. In indonesia, the subgrantee has aided the ministry of health in developing a proposal to amend the pp109, which has been presented to the president and is currently under discussion. This proposal includes recommendations including increasing the size of pictorial health warnings, banning online tobacco advertising, and prohibiting the display of tobacco products at the point of sale. The subgrantee has mobilized 42 civil society organizations to advocate for policy changes, including amending the pp109 and raising taxes and prices on tobacco products. In 2022, the government further increased taxes by 10% and prices by 12%, to be implemented in 2023 and 2024. In india, ntcp expanded to all 36 states and union territories, covering 692 districts; all states also established the tobacco control cells and appointed nodal officers. Approximately 900 dedicated staff at state and district levels are currently supporting ntcp. The subgrantee has hosted the annual apcat conference in bali, which was attended by over 300 participants including 48 mayors. Philippines also held an apcat forum in 2022.- industry interference and new products:in india, the subgrantee supported over 10 states in passing or implementing article 5.3 policies. The subgrantee has also helped mohs in bangladesh and mexico create such policies. In response to the tobacco industry's recent efforts to flood lmics with novel products, the subgrantee has helped create and support policy solutions for the bloomberg priority countries. In mexico, the subgrantee helped with a presidential decree prohibiting importation of ends, ennds and htps. The mexican government also released a statement condemning pmi, noting that the us fda iqos decision does not change mexico's fctc obligations nor novel product legality. In china, all flavored e-cigarettes, apart from those with tobacco flavor, and ennds are banned, and sales to minors are also prohibited. In addition, a 36% ad valorem excise tax is now imposed on e-cigarette producers/importers and 11% on wholesalers. In indonesia, a total of 43 jurisdictions have now banned the use of e-cigarettes in workplaces, public places, and public transport.- tobacco control policy implementation:in february 2022, the subgrantee launched the tobacco control implementation hub, an online repository of resources and best practice case studies; since launching, the site has had 33,223 views from 146 countries. In december 2022, the subgrantee launched the tobacco control implementation hub for china, a country-specific section of the global hub. Written entirely in chinese, it is an online resource center which supports and promotes evidence-based best practice for effective implementation of tobacco control laws in the country. There have been over 1,000 views since the section went live. With the subgrantee's support, india and pakistan made progress adopting tobacco vendor licensing ordinances.

Data for health programs:vital Strategies achieved the following accomplishments as part of the bloomberg philanthropies data for health program in 2022:- civil registration and Vital statistics ("crvs") continued its work in ensuring that a greater number of birth and death records are counted as part of its public health systems improvement objective. Since april 2021, crvs has recorded 39 systems changes: 23 in 12 african focus countries, 13 in 14 asia-pacific focus countries, and four in two focus countries in latin america. Seventeen of these improvements led to a change in overall system performance scores (e.g., from 'poor' to 'improving,' from 'improving' to 'good,' etc.). Significant strides in crvs improvement were made during this time as milestones were achieved for 359 of 523 (69%) planned milestones across six intervention areas. Overall performance in several key indicators also improved in 2022. Cumulatively, 12.6 million improved or newly counted birth records have been totaled of which nearly 25% (4 million) were recorded in 2021 to 2022, nearly double the previous year (a 196% increase). The cumulative number of death records improved or newly counted in countries receiving initiative support increased from 13,591,000 in 2021 to 17,716,000 in 2022, an increase of 31%. Specific country-based accomplishments include the establishment of a national death committee in cambodia, a hospital guide for certification of causes of death developed and validated by the minister of public health to be used by doctors in all regions in cameroon, integration of crvs systems with hmis system linked to the national population registry permitting timely access to crvs data for monitoring health interventions in rwanda and the first time establishment of a link between the health sector and civil registrar to facilitate exchange of mortality information in vietnam.- as part of data impact's flagship data to policy work, 34 policy briefs were developed with 9 being enacted or in the process of being enacted in 2022. This represents an increase from the 18 policy briefs developed with 5 enacted or in process in 2021. An example of the brief which is in the process of enactment is in colombia where national regulations on protective motorcycle helmets have been published, and a commitment exists to reduce lead levels in paint. Additionally, Vital worked with cdc, cdc foundation and vanderbilt university to deliver a week-long intensive workshop on decision modeling for health economic evaluation for 28 health economists from 14 data to policy countries. The workshop was designed to increase the capacity for health economic modeling in country partners and ministries of health to better foster institutionalization of the data to policy program. Other capacity-building programs were offered in countries, depending on government needs and requests: analytics for public health practice, data driven leadership, and civil registration and Vital statistics (cvrs) data use. Lastly, the data impact program team worked to ensure that available data are used to make decisions and influence policy. In papua new guinea, an excel-based interactive senior executive management (sem) dashboard was developed with selected indicators for each of the five key result areas defined in the monitoring and evaluation strategy for the national health plan. The dashboard provides quarterly visualization of provincial and regional indicators which will be used to monitor the implementation of the national health plan. In cameroon, an analysis demonstrating extremely positive outcomes in adolescent reproductive health units (arhus) led to a circular being signed by the minister in december 2022 to extend the arhus to all general hospitals and district medical centers.- the global grants program successfully administered one funding rounds (rounds 6) in 2022, awarding 16 subgrants totaling $2.04m. Of the 16 subgrants awarded, 11 were for countries based in africa, 2 in latin america, 2 in asia and 1 in europe. All awarded subgrants focused on interventions related to either crvs, data impact or cancer registry. Round 6 was the first funding round to actively encourage non-governmental organizations to seek support with an emphasis on equity work. Additional work was completed to close out subgrants awarded in rounds 2 through round 5.- as part of our cancer registry activity, Vital solidified the creation and dissemination of cancer registries data via the production of monthly reports to moh which include case counts from all established registries inclusive of estimation of the top 10 cancers stratified by age and sex. In mozambique we also were able to train 22 registrars (11 male and 11 female) in basic cancer registry data collection methods. Additionally, cancer registry partnered with the team in rwanda to analyze their survival data, thus completing an advanced analysis that drew on experts from the iarc-gicr johannesburg collaborating center, who, alongside afcrn, provided technical assistance for this work. In vietnam, Vital supported the use of registry data to develop the first- ever nationwide population-based cancer registry annual report. Lastly, work began in zimbabwe in spring 2022.

Other program services include:- air pollution and health- childhood lead poisoning prevention- civil registration and Vital statistics- food policy- overdose prevention- partnership for healthy cities- research- road safety