18/05/2026
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Walk through any market in Lusaka and you will still see them β brightly coloured packets, flavoured to***co products, and ni****ne pouches displayed within armβs reach of school children. Mango. Mint. Cherry. The to***co industry has always known that addiction begins young and that a child hooked at ten is a customer for life β or until their life ends too early.
For years, that was the reality Zambian advocates were fighting to change. Recently, Parliament changed it with them. The successful third reading of Zambiaβs To***co Control Bill is not just a legislative milestone; it is the culmination of a long, hard, often painful reckoning β a story about whom a government chooses to protect and whom it refuses to serve.
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The journey toward the passage of Zambiaβs To***co Control Bill was neither smooth nor straightforward. For many years, the legislative process was shaped by competing national interests and deeply entrenched tensions surrounding to***co production, economic survival, public health, and political decision-making. The Zambian government often found itself balancing two difficult positions: the industryβs economic arguments on one side, and the weight of evidence on the other.
The to***co industryβs playbook is consistent across the continent. In Zambia, it threatened that legislation would destroy the economy, cripple agricultural productivity, and disrupt the livelihoods of farmers and small-scale entrepreneurs. Certain industry-aligned voices went as far as claiming that more than 500,000 jobs would be negatively affected by the legislation. These claims generated real anxiety, confusion, and resistance within sections of society and among some policymakers, creating repeated obstacles along the legislative path. Purposefully designed for this outcome.
Despite this prolonged back-and-forth struggle, civil society remained steadfast and unwavering in its resolve. Advocacy groups continued to organise evidence-based campaigns, amplify community voices, engage Members of Parliament, mobilise young people, and strengthen public understanding of the true cost of to***co addiction and to***co-related disease. Rather than retreating in the face of opposition, the coalition intensified its commitment to demanding the passage of the Bill, driven by the conviction that protecting lives, especially those of children, adolescents, and future generations, was far more valuable than preserving the unchecked interests of the to***co industry.
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Under the banner of βSave Zambia from To***co,β a growing broad-based coalition movement of civil society organizations, academia, religious groups, Members of Parliament, professional bodies, community advocates, and public figures began doing what the to***co industry feared the most: telling the truth, loudly, together, and with evidence.
With support from the Campaign for To***co Free Kids, local advocates conducted the Big To***co Tiny Targets study β generating the kind of local, specific data that dismantles industry narratives and informs the public of the stark reality: to***co companies were deliberately positioning their products to reach young Zambians at eye level in shops, street corners or stands near schools. Flavoured products. Affordable single sticks.
This was no accident of the market. It was a strategy, and the coalition named it as such. So, they took the evidence to Parliament, to the media and to communities across conventional and digital platforms. They organised. They amplified. And when the industry would push back, as they always do, advocates would push harder. The message steadily penetrated public discourse, helping to reposition to***co control as not merely a health issue, but a national development, youth protection, and social justice concern.
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It obliterates the flavour trap. Banning characterising flavours recognises what every parent should know β mango and mint are not for 45-year-olds trying to quit. They are bait for young people who have never smoked. It raises the minimum age for access to to***co products to 21 years old, thereby protecting young people from the temptation of trials and the snares of addiction. It bans all forms of To***co Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship thereby making to***co-use less attractive to young people.
It provides for 100% smoke-free environments, thereby protecting non-smokers from the effects of second- and third-hand smoke. It provides for cessation services to be offered to all those willing to quit.
It mandates industry to adhere to plain packaging and pictorial health warnings on all to***co and ni****ne products and devices, stripping to***co products of their manufactured appeal. And critically, it shields public health policy from industry interference. Article 5.3 of the FCTC is a firewall. Zambiaβs move to insulate public health policy from industry lobbying sets a standard even the African Union should adopt.
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At To***co Free Kids, we have stood with civil society in Zambia who strategically advocated for the passage of strong to***co control legislation through coalition building, generating local evidence through a Big To***co Tiny Targets study, forging strategic partnerships, mobilizing voices from a cross-section of allies and providing technical assistance to the government. They did not ask for applause. They asked for law. These past few weeks, Parliament answered.
Every Parliament in Africa watching this process needs to understand that the to***co industryβs arguments did not change. They never do. What changed is that Zambia stopped believing them. Zambiaβs neighbours have a blueprint. And they have a responsibility.
To***co costs African nations far more than it generates. The health system burden, the lost productivity, the premature deaths of working-age citizens, the families fractured by to***co-related diseases β these are the true factors the industry never embeds in its economic models. Zambia just decided to count them.
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What comes next matters most. Implementation is where good bills live or die. That means funding enforcement, training inspectors, and measuring change in communities β not just on paper. It means rejecting the false choice between βharm reductionβ and child protection.
To Zambiaβs parliamentarians: thank you for leading and for choosing the health and productive future of your nation. To the rest of Africa: the line has been drawn. Now draw yours.
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