From Learning to Sharing: Bringing the ASCEND Experience to Young Tobacco Control Advocates in Kenya

Leadership development is most meaningful when the knowledge and skills gained are shared with others.

Following my participation in the ASCEND Leadership Program, I was pleased to organise a virtual knowledge-sharing session together with my fellow ASCEND colleagues, Erick Omondi and Elizabeth Nyaberi, to share some of the lessons and practical tools we gained with young people involved in tobacco control advocacy in Kenya.

The session attracted 107 registered participants, with approximately half joining and remaining engaged throughout the two-hour session. This level of interest demonstrated the growing appetite among young advocates to strengthen their skills and better understand how to approach tobacco control challenges strategically.

From Systems Thinking to Advocacy Action

The session focused on some of the tools we encountered during the ASCEND programme:

• Systems Thinking, which helps us understand tobacco control as a complex system rather than a collection of isolated problems.
• Spidergram, which helps identify the “weakest leg” or key constraint within a system where action may be most needed.
• Fishbone Analysis, which allows advocates to explore the root causes underlying a particular problem or constraint.
• Stakeholder Mapping, particularly the Power–Influence Grid, which helps identify stakeholders according to their influence and level of interest and guides how they should be engaged.

We also shared information about the broader ASCEND Leadership Program and encouraged participants to explore opportunities to become part of the programme.

Learning Should Create a Multiplier Effect

The session reminded me that leadership development should not end with the individual who receives the training. The real value comes when learning is transferred to others and adapted to local contexts.

For me, this knowledge-sharing session was therefore an opportunity to take lessons from Bangkok and make them accessible to young tobacco control advocates in Kenya.

I am grateful to Elizabeth Nyaberi, ASCEND Alumna, and Erick Omondi, ASCEND Fellow, for joining me in organising and facilitating the session. I am equally grateful to Graziele Grilo, ASCEND Program Director, for her continued support and for joining us to deliver the opening remarks.

The session was largely theoretical, and we recognise that these tools are best understood through practice. Our hope is that participants will use the presentation and the tools introduced to begin applying systems thinking, root-cause analysis and stakeholder mapping to the tobacco control challenges they are working to address.

Ultimately, the goal is not simply to learn new tools, but to use them to think differently, advocate more strategically and contribute to meaningful tobacco control action.

I look forward to continuing this journey of learning, sharing and collaboration with tobacco control advocates in Kenya and across the region.

From learning in Bangkok to sharing in Kenya—this is how leadership creates a multiplier effect.

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