Over 160 participants from around the world joined WHO's first-ever Global Forum on Advancing Multisectoral and Multistakeholder Engagement and Accountability to End TB, held on June 23-24 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This important event brought together countries, partners, civil society, and key stakeholders within and beyond the health sector to strengthen capacity on multisectoral engagement and accountability as a high-level priority to end TB. The forum put a spotlight on ensuring the alignment and synergy of complementary efforts of different sectors in fighting TB, including addressing the broader determinants of the TB epidemic, and to monitor and report progress as a global review of the TB response.
The
Global Forum was opened by the Honorable Minister of Health of Bangladesh – Dr
Samanta Lal Sen, who delivered the keynote address, alongside interventions
from the Honorable State Minister Dr. Rokeya Sultana; and Dr Md. Jahangir Alam,
Health Secretary. The opening session featured addresses from an impressive
line-up of speakers, including Dr Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO’s Global TB
Programme; Dr. Saima Wazed, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region; Dr
Bardan Jung Rana, WHO Representative in Bangladesh and TB survivor Md. Alif,
who shared his personal journey against TB and his call to action for increased
accountability to end TB.
The Honorable Minister of Health Dr Samanta Lal Sen launched a special campaign titled “Hit TB out of Bangladesh” to accelerate the TB response in the country based on Bangladesh's popular sport - cricket. The Forum brought together representatives from ten ministries beyond health, UN agencies, other high-TB burden countries, partners, and civil society. This forum was an important milestone in building the capacity of national programmes and WHO staff at all 3 levels to adapt and implement WHO’s Multisectoral Accountability Framework to End TB.
“The first Global Forum on Multisectoral Engagement and Accountability is an important landmark that we hope will inspire and encourage political leaders, officials within and beyond the health sector, civil society and affected communities, partners, and funders to join forces and accelerate progress towards ending TB,” said Dr Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO’s Global TB Programme. “We applaud the leadership of Bangladesh in ramping up the TB response through the launch of their campaign "Hit TB Out of Bangladesh", WHO across all three levels remains committed to continue its close collaboration with the Bangladeshi government and people in their efforts to end TB.”
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WHO #YOUTH2ENDTB TOWNHALL
Over 70 young people from across the world and Bangladesh came together at the special #Youth2EndTB Townhall organized by WHO on the evening of June 23. The Youth Town Hall provided a participatory platform through WHO’s 1+1 Youth Initiative for young people to engage with key stakeholders on global efforts to end TB, offering their insights and feedback on how they can be actively involved in shaping priorities and becoming youth champions in the fight against TB.
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Annual Meeting of the Stop TB Working Group on Public-Private Mix for TB Prevention and Care
Over 130 participants from countries, partners and civil society joined the annual meeting of the Stop TB Working Group on Public-Private Mix (PPM Working Group) for TB prevention and care. The meeting, held on 25-26 June in Dhaka, Bangladesh, was convened by WHO and the Stop TB Partnership with support from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Global Fund. The meeting was opened by Dr Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO’s Global TB Programme and Dr Madhukar Pai, (previous) Chair of the Stop TB PPM Working Group. TB survivor and advocate – Ms Vivian Faith - shared her personal journey in combating TB and called for increased engagement of all care providers to close gaps in access to quality prevention and care services.
The opening session featured impactful interventions from speakers from WHO, USAID, The Global Fund, and the Stop TB Partnership. The agenda included a presentation on the global overview of PPM progress and priorities with a focus on translating the commitments made at the second UN High-Level Meeting into action. This was followed by a country roundtable that highlighted national experiences in setting up PPM dashboards.
A spotlight was also placed on innovations and tools for enhancing private-public sector engagement in TB for greater impact, with three specific panels: on screening and diagnostics, TB prevention, and innovations. At the close of the day, a special PPM Roundtable on historical perspectives and lessons on sustainability was held, as well as on the TB PPM Learning Network.
An interactive marketplace showcasing national progress from 17
countries in the implementation of the PPM Roadmap, was held featuring a
poster-display, along with discussions and brief presentations by country teams.
The
second day began with field visits to six PPM sites in Dhaka to learn from
realities and key PPM models on the ground. The visits covered screening and
diagnostic sites run by BRAC and ICDDRB, Birdem Hospital on TB and diabetes
collaborative activities, Dhaka Medical College and a garment factory TB PPM
workplace model. This was followed by a country session focused on PPM progress
in Bangladesh and an interactive panel on contracting for TB/health services,
different modes of partnerships, and evolving realities. The day closed with a
mapping of key priorities for the PPM Working Group looking ahead. At the close
of the meeting, representatives from national TB programmes, partners, and
civil society commended the work of the PPM Working Group and WHO and pledged
to accelerate PPM efforts in countries.
The first meeting of the new PPM Core Group was held on the evening of 26 June, to discuss key priorities for 2024-2025 for the Working Group.
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WHO Consultation on Enhanced TB-PPM Dashboards with Seven PPM Priority Countries
On June 27, WHO held a special consultation on enhanced TB-PPM data dashboards bringing together over 70 representatives from the seven PPM priority countries. The consultation showcased a special initiative led by WHO to strengthen PPM monitoring in 7 priority countries with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The consultation was opened by Guy Stallworthy, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Hannah Monica Dias, WHO Global TB Programme. The aim of the consultation was to share experiences and best practices in implementing the initiative and to outline the next steps in sustaining and expanding the use of the dashboards to other countries.