The Foundation, a nonprofit private foundation, was formed to help the world’s more than 1 billion smokers quit and reduce their risks from smoking, which remains the leading cause of preventable disease and premature death. The purpose of the Foundation is to improve global health by ending smoking in this generation. Our mission also includes addressing the impacts of a reduced demand for tobacco on smallholder tobacco farmers, and to help them transition to alternative crops and livelihoods.
Other organizations focus mainly on tobacco control measures implemented by government regulations and do not include tobacco harm reduction in their efforts to reduce tobacco-related diseases and death. Many of them are funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, or by governments. On the other hand, the Foundation’s work supports a full array of tobacco control measures, as proposed by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). While other organizations neglect certain FCTC-agreed elements, such as harm reduction (which is an integral part of the definition of tobacco control in Article 1 of the main FCTC text), science and innovation, and alternatives to tobacco—we address these elements. In fact, the Foundation takes one of the broadest approaches to tobacco control. Our work focuses on those elements that have been relatively underfunded and/or neglected (e.g., tobacco harm reduction, science, research, innovation, and implementation of tobacco control measures in vulnerable populations).
While most funding for research on smoking cessation and tobacco harm reduction, for example, is concentrated in the United States and the United Kingdom (with some important work underway in Europe), the Foundation funds research globally. Countries where tobacco control progress has been slower and smoking-related impacts greater, often lack the resources and research capacity to investigate effective tobacco control initiatives. Low-income countries received merely 0.3% of direct grants for health research in 2015. The Foundation is working to fill these gaps, by supporting research also in low- and middle-income countries, where 80% of the global smoking population resides. We are helping them build their tobacco research capacity and implement effective interventions to end smoking.
We are combining our innovative approaches with proven best practices in the areas of smoking cessation, tobacco harm reduction, behavior economics, policy, and taxation.
Furthermore, the Foundation is seeking to address a critical need for crop diversification by helping tobacco farmers in countries that are economically over-reliant on tobacco diversify their crops and livelihoods. As the demand for tobacco declines worldwide, crop diversification is becoming increasingly crucial.
The Foundation’s mission is to accelerate progress toward ending smoking through three key pillars of focus: (1) health, science, and technology, for smoking cessation and tobacco harm reduction tools that complement progress achieved by FCTC efforts; (2) agricultural transformation, for crop diversification and alternative livelihoods in tobacco-dependent countries, with an initial focus on Malawi; and, (3) tobacco industry transformation, for transformation of the global tobacco industry and nicotine ecosystem in a manner that is compatible with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework.
The Foundation’s efforts to achieve its mission are being realized by:
At its inception, the Foundation entered into a Pledge Agreement in which it agreed to accept charitable gifts from PMI each year for the period 2018 through 2029 to fund Foundation’s mission of solving the global health crisis and ending smoking in this generation. Recently, that agreement was revised, and PMI’s annual charitable gifts have been reduced.
While the Foundation is aware that there are challenges associated with accepting any funding from the tobacco industry, given the urgency of the problem – 1.1 billion smokers, more than 8 million dying each year, and a trajectory toward a billion deaths this century, the Foundation was compelled to help save lives, and took the bold step of accepting funding from PMI. The Foundation operates with integrity, as we abide all legal requirements, and holds itself to the highest ethical and scientific standards. Indeed, independence and transparency are core principles of the Foundation. To that end, Foundation adheres to the criteria laid forth by Cohen et al., particularly those relevant to transparency and independence, and has established an independent research agenda.
The Foundation’s Certificate of Incorporation states that the Foundation was formed to, among other things, “support independent scientific research free from the influence of any commercial entity that may be affected by the research outcome.” Consistently, the Foundation’s Bylaws state that the Foundation shall not take into account the potential impact of its research on the image of the tobacco industry or any other industry or commercial entity. The Bylaws also contain a rigorous conflict of interest policy. Finally, in the Pledge Agreement that the Foundation entered into with PMI, both parties agreed that the Foundation shall maintain full independence, and shall make all its decisions on its own, free from the control, interim instructions, or improper influence, from or by PMI or any other third parties. These statements are not just written on paper, but they are the lived experience of the organization.
In addition to filling the urgent need, and saving the lives and reducing the risks for the 1.1 billion smokers in the world, the existence of the Foundation is timely now because of:
The Foundation seized this timely opportunity as technological advances in software, devices, vaping, and tobacco use have been creating the potential to improve the effectiveness of smoking cessation tools and reduce the risks associated with tobacco products. Technological disruption is an integral part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Financial support for international tobacco control is very low. Of the $31.4 billion USD in development assistance for global health in 2011, only $68 million were spent on international tobacco control. Funding for health research remains insignificant (0.3% of direct health research grants) in countries where most smokers live, i.e., in low- and middle-income countries.
No third party, including PMI Global Services Inc. (PMI), can influence decisions on the research programs that the Foundation decides to fund, research conducted by the Foundation’s grantees, or the publication of their research findings. Article IX, sections A, C, and F of the Foundation’s Bylaws provide for independence in research, transparency and independence, and ownership of data and freedom to publish, including grantees making their raw data available for secondary analyses, respectively.
The Foundation makes and will make available the following:
The Foundation supports research that addresses our three core pillars: Health, Science, & Technology; Agriculture & Livelihoods; and Industry Transformation. We provide grants to support work that is being conducted by independent research organizations, academic institutions and centers, and organizations in the private sector. All current and past requests for proposals (RFPs) that the Foundation supports are featured on the website.
Yes, absolutely. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Foundation’s strategic plan for action intersect in many ways and are an invaluable framework for alignment. The Foundation’s SDG map and the legend that supports it identify relevant SDG goals, their specific targets, and associated indicators that the Foundation aims to materially impact. The UN’s SDGs are grounded in improving people’s lives and the planet across economic, social, and environmental dimensions, and providing “a better and more sustainable future for all.” The Foundation embraces these priorities through our mission to end smoking in this generation. Smoking is a major behavioral risk factor for noncommunicable diseases, and the approaches of the SDGs to prevent and control noncommunicable diseases align with the Foundation’s purpose to improve global health by ending smoking worldwide in this generation. The Foundation is also committed to mitigating the collateral negative effects of ending smoking and of the global decline of tobacco demand on tobacco farmers and tobacco-dependent economies.
Yes, unequivocally. The Foundation is supportive of the progress that has been achieved in implementing key provisions of the FCTC and seeks to complement such progress and accelerate efforts to achieve a smoke-free world
In support of its mission, the Foundation’s Industry Transformation efforts focus on attaining change within the global tobacco industry and nicotine ecosystem. The Tobacco Transformation Index, which is the first action of the Foundation’s Industry Transformation initiative, aims to accelerate the reduction of harm caused by tobacco use. Specifically, the Tobacco Transformation Index evaluates 15 of the largest tobacco companies in the world on their relative progress, or lack thereof, toward harm reduction. This ranking and supporting analyses help stimulate innovation and competition among the companies and equip stakeholders with valuable information to drive change.
The first Tobacco Transformation Index was released in September 2020 and found that most of the 15 largest tobacco companies are not making substantive progress in phasing out cigarettes and other high-risk tobacco products and transitioning smokers to reduced-risk alternatives. A small group of companies have made public commitments to harm reduction and backed them with significant investments.
The aim of the Index is to incentivize scientific research and development for the advancement of product innovations to benefit public health and potentially millions of adult smokers, particularly in developing countries. The Index provides investors, among all stakeholders, with quantifiable evidence of how companies are addressing industry transformation, on both an absolute and a relative basis, as an additional tool with which to wield influence and promote change. By creating a direct relationship between a company’s transformation and shareholder value, while quantifying transformation through clear and transparent metrics, we envision using a market-driven approach to incentivize sustainable change toward accelerating tobacco harm reduction and to meet consumer demand for reduced-harm nicotine delivery products worldwide.
The Foundation believes that the forces of competition, differentiation, and constructive engagement are part of the solution, in addition to policy prescriptions. The record shows that implementation of policy strategies alone is not achieving the degree and speed in the reduction of the prevalence of cigarette smoking that is desired.
The Tobacco Transformation Index’s key premise is that by actively encouraging and monitoring the transformation, it will over time incentivize the tobacco companies to act more quickly and more responsibly than they otherwise would. Conversely, players that do not make the necessary transition rapidly enough will be exposed. As a result, stakeholders will be better informed and able to demand necessary action.
Careful engagement with tobacco companies increases awareness and impact of the Index program. None of this has any effect on our independence.
The Index relies on extensive engagement with non-industry stakeholders. Through a separate process, the Index approached the companies to ensure they are informed about the Index program, consider their feedback on proposed indicators, and invite them to share data to be evaluated by the Index.
Company participation is voluntary. However, companies that elect not to engage are scored using publicly available data and included in the final ranking.
The nature and content of interactions with tobacco companies is available for public review in the Industry Consultation Summary report via the Tobacco Transformation Index ™ website.
The Index objectively evaluates the depth of how the top 15 tobacco companies deploy their capital, including PMI. The methodology for the Index includes the review of quantitative and qualitative evidence of how the companies are addressing harm reduction, which is a verifiable means of assessing progress that goes well beyond the qualitative way STOP, WHO and others report on “tobacco industry interference.” Further, the Index includes companies who account for 90% of worldwide cigarette sales versus STOP/WHO reports that focus mainly on 4 or 5 multinationals. Their limited scope means that the companies whose progress is slow or nonexistent are not a part of the analysis, leading to an inaccurate evaluation of the landscape.
The Index is not an all-encompassing tool intended to supplant other measures, but it is designed to complement them. These include WHO-FCTC, SASB, Global Tobacco Interference Index, and more. It adds the perspective of accelerating the reduction of harm caused by tobacco use which is largely ignored by others.
The Foundation strongly condemns vaping among youth and teens, just as we condemn smoking among youth and teens. We believe that regulations, public policies, and corporate actions must prevent minors from having access to vape devices, e-cigarettes, or any tobacco-related product.
Tobacco companies must cease all marketing of their products to minors, such as on social media and through advertising. Such a commitment, paired with enforcement and education on the potential health effects of nicotine on children and teens, is imperative.
The Foundation has supported/commissioned a number of surveys and reports that are featured in the following Research and Reports Library on the site:
For more information about our work to date, visit our annual report page.
