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In 2000, ITEN was selected by the Rockefeller Foundation to provide technical support to its capacity building project tin Southeast Asia called the "Trading Tobacco for Health Initiative" (TTFHI). The project is a collaborative effort among international technical experts in epidemiology and economics, regional alliances and institutions and local NGOs, and its goal is to produce and disseminate policy relevant research evidence supporting tobacco control initiatives. ITEN regional partners include the South East Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) Action on Smoking and Health Foundation of Thailand (ASH Thailand) and the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth), all key organizations in SE Asia tobacco control. ITEN technical partner in the projects is the Global Institute for Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (the epidemiology capacity building).

This program covers the full spectrum of economic issues, including those identified by regional partners as priorities for the region: estimating the price elasticity of demand for tobacco products and discussing the implications of these estimates for tobacco taxation; estimating the impact of tobacco control policies and other factors on the demand for tobacco products; examining issues in the globalization, through trade liberalization and privatization, of the tobacco industry; examining the impact of tobacco and tobacco control on farmers, those employed in tobacco product manufacturing, and other tobacco-related employment; estimating the gross and net health care costs from tobacco use; estimating the social costs of tobacco use; examining the impact of tobacco use on household expenditure patterns, particularly among the poorest households; describing the equity issues related to tobacco use and tobacco control; examining issues related to smuggling of tobacco products; and examining the cost-effectiveness of tobacco control interventions.

Four countries were carefully chosen to represent the range of levels of economic development generally and, more specifically, of tobacco control policy development. Thailand was one, due to its advanced state in both respects. Malaysia was chosen as an economically developed country, but without a strong tobacco control agenda in place. Cambodia was chosen because they might gain momentum by learning from the experience of others in the region. Viet Nam presented a good education level and a supply of trained economists, and was beginning to open to the West. The hope was that early introduction of tobacco control policy could blunt the impact of multinational tobacco companies entering this new market. In November 2002, the Rockefeller Foundation funded a second phase of expanded TTFHI activities to take advantage of the momentum built. The second phase seeks to tailor itself to identified local needs by focusing on specific research topics. The joint objective is the production of high quality research using local data. ITEN and its regional partner solicit research proposals from researchers participating in the initiative, provide technical assistance with writing research proposals, organize their review, provide recommendations for funding.