COP11: Africa’s Reckoning

“A warning shot was fired in Geneva: Africa will no longer inherit a tobacco future designed elsewhere.”

Date: 07/12/2025
Author: Gabriel Oke

The Essentials

• By Gabriel Oke, observational political analysis of COP11 (WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control), held in Geneva in Nov 2025, with focus on African delegations and negotiations under Articles 18, 19, and 2.1.
  

• Key outcomes: no global ban on filters or e-devices; Article 19 strengthens pathways for legal accountability but without mandatory levies; Article 2.1 endgame measures remain voluntary.
  

• Economic pressures remain acute: countries must regulate device waste and disposables, and address litigation pathways, largely without new external financing.
  

• Cost-effectiveness hinges on flexible regulation, risk-proportionate strategies, and the development of domestic legal capacity rather than adopting one-size-fits-all global bans.
  

• Implications for inequality: exclusion of African civil society, fragile waste systems, and limited cessation services highlight persistent asymmetries in global health governance.
  
  

Why It Matters

COP11 exposed a long-standing fracture: a global treaty built for a world of cigarettes is struggling to govern a landscape of new nicotine technologies and uneven state capacity.

Africa enters the debate not as a peripheral actor but as the region where tobacco harms remain highest, cessation infrastructure remains weakest, and economic and logistical realities most constrain regulatory experimentation.

The Geneva session revealed a shift in tone: African negotiators pushed back against prohibitionist reflexes, insisted on feasibility, and challenged the exclusion of local voices.

Behind the diplomatic language lies a more profound political truth: no global treaty can claim legitimacy while making decisions for a billion Africans who are not in the room. Evidence, not dogma, must shape the path ahead.

Ultimately, beyond the technicalities of filters, waste streams, and litigation frameworks, COP11 illuminated something more human: the fight for agency.

Africa is no longer asking to be heard. It is asserting the right to shape its own health future.

What Changes in Practice

Health/Regulation – Countries must design realistic regulations for disposable vapes, e-device waste, and filters, without a global mandate or new funding.
Endgame measures remain voluntary, giving flexibility but no guarantee of progress. Legal frameworks must evolve to enable effective use of Article 19.

Industry/Innovation – Regulatory uncertainty delays investment in safer alternatives and waste-management innovations. Flexible, risk-proportionate pathways could incentivize technologies that lower harm and reduce environmental burdens.

Society/Environment – Waste systems already strained in many African nations face new responsibilities. Exclusion of civil society deepens mistrust and widens representation gaps, affecting farmers, consumers, and researchers.

Scenarios and Next Steps

Short term (1–2 years): Countries assess waste-management capacity; begin drafting national legal strategies under Article 19; map cessation gaps; initiate consultations with civil society excluded from COP.

Medium term (3–5 years): Development of integrated regulatory systems for new nicotine products; establishment of specialized legal units for litigation against transnational tobacco corporations; pilot harm-reduction programs where relevant.

Long term (5–10 years): Strengthened public health systems capable of regulating across the risk spectrum; continent-wide collaboration on legal and environmental strategies; Africa increasingly shaping—not receiving—global tobacco policy doctrine.

The Takeaway

“A warning shot was fired in Geneva: Africa will no longer inherit a tobacco future designed elsewhere.”

For Further Reading: