From the international tobacco control arena to the local context: a qualitative study on the tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship legislative environment in Sudan and the challenges characterising it

Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the Sudanese tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS) legislative environment and the challenges characterising it. We formulated three research questions: What is the TAPS policy context in Sudan? What circumstances led to the development of the current legislative text? Finally, what was the involvement of the different actors in these events?

Design: We conducted a qualitative analysis using the Health Policy Triangle model to frame the collection and extraction of publicly available information from academic literature search engines, news media databases or websites of national and international organisations, as published by February 2021. The thematic framework approach was employed to code and analyse the textual data and the generated themes were used to map connections across the data and to explore relationships among the generated subthemes and themes.

Setting: Sudan.

Data: Using a combination of the keywords “Sudan” and “tobacco advertising” (or “tobacco marketing” or “tobacco promotion”), we collected publicly available documents in the English language. We included 29 documents in the analysis.

Results: Three themes underpin the Sudanese legislative environment on TAPS: (1) limited and outdated TAPS data, (2) stakeholder involvement and tobacco industry interference and (3) TAPS legislation not aligned with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Secretariat recommendations.

Conclusions: Findings from this qualitative analysis suggest that recommendations to move forward in Sudan should include the systematic and periodic collection of TAPS surveillance data, addressing any remaining legislative content loopholes and protecting policy-making from tobacco industry interference. In addition, best practices from other low-income and middle-income countries with good TAPS monitoring systems, such as Egypt, Bangladesh and Indonesia, or with protective provisions against tobacco industry interference, such as Thailand and the Philippines, could be considered for adaptation and implementation.