DOTS is the WHO recommended strategy for global tuberculosis control. Efforts to control TB worldwide are being led by the Stop TB Partnership through its various global Working Groups and coordinated by the StopTB Coordinating Board. The DOTS Expansion Working Group (DEWG) represents national TB programmes of 22 high TB-burden countries that bear 80% of the global TB burden, international technical partners and donor agencies engaged in global TB control. DEWG is hosted by WHO. Current efforts to control TB are aimed at achieving two global targets by 2005 through rapid expansion of DOTS: detecting 70% of the estimated TB cases globally and curing 85% of the detected cases. One of the major constraints to achieving the global target for case detection has been the non-involvement of private health care providers in the implementation of DOTS. TB management practices of private providers are not in line with the DOTS strategy resulting in under-notification and questionable treatment outcomes of cases. WHO has been instrumental in piloting models of collaboration with private providers in many countries. To build on the work undertaken in this area and to address the issue urgently and effectively, DEWG has established a Subgroup on Public– Private Mix for DOTS Expansion (PPM DOTS Subgroup).