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Funder: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (now the Gates Foundation) through the Development Gateway: an IREX Venture (lead implementer)

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Dr Noreen Mdege led an international team of researchers to collect bespoke, nationally representative data to investigate the prevalence of, and factors associated with, tobacco and nicotine product use among adolescents aged 10–17 years in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and Nigeria.

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Impact:

• The findings from the research have been used by policymakers and other stakeholders for advocacy in television interviews (see example in Kenya) and newspaper articles.

• The findings have also informed the campaign messages for the 2025 World No Tobacco Day in the three countries.

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Research Capacity Development

• Three early-career researchers successfully published their first lead-author peer-reviewed journal articles.

• Two early-career researchers had their first-ever publication from this research.