The purpose of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free is to end smoking in this generation. However, the Foundation recognizes that farmers around the world, who rely on tobacco production as their source of livelihood, require a range of creative and innovative initiatives to offset disruption to their livelihoods caused by the global decline in tobacco demand.
The Foundation aims to prepare smallholder tobacco farmers for an era of significantly reduced demand for tobacco, focusing first on populations with the greatest need. To this end, the Foundation will partner with a diverse set of stakeholders to facilitate the establishment of more secure income strategies for farmers and to ensure the success and sustainability of our strategy. We will partner with private sector firms as standalone applicants or lead entities in partnership with research institutions, civil sector entities, and other interested entities whose requests for proposals present viable commercially driven solutions aimed at transforming smallholder agriculture. To help inform and support the Foundation’s Agricultural Transformation Initiative, we will also partner with a research and evaluation organization that, on an ad hoc basis, will serve as an ongoing resource to the Foundation. Partners of the Foundation will also create an enabling policy environment for economic and agricultural transformation in developing countries.
The Foundation will also support postdoctoral fellowships and graduate studies that are pertinent to agricultural transformation in developing countries. These include, but are not limited to, the agricultural sciences, applied economics and natural resources, business and entrepreneurship, and technology and engineering. Importantly, these disciplines must fill gaps in local knowledge and capacity, and contribute to the overall economic development, growth, and transformation in the qualified developing country.
Ultimately, the diverse set of stakeholders with whom we will partner will contribute to an agricultural and economic transformation that is less reliant on the tobacco sector. We will continue to issue requests for proposals to achieve our goal.