ADVOCACY AND COMMUNICATIONS
UK Tour by TB/HIV activist
Lucy Cheshire, a nutrition specialist from Nairobi who is HIV+ and survived a bout of tuberculosis several years ago, completed a week-long tour of the United Kingdom organized by Results UK and the WHO Stop TB Department to raise awareness about the scale of the dual epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Her itinerary included:
- Interviews with BBC radio, and other media;
- Meetings with Gareth Thomas, the UK Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for International Development, and a number of Members of Parliament to discuss the human tragedy of TB;
- Personal delivery of a letter for Prime Minister Tony Blair to his official residence at 10 Downing Street in London;
- Presentation on TB to students at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
Support to countries for the Round 5 of the GFATM
The Stop TB Partnership is working to rapidly scale up capacity building and technical assistance at country level in 2005 to enable national TB programmes to undertake strategic communication activities. To that end the Secretariat has organized three special initiatives to encourage and support HBCs in preparing effective communication components in their proposals for Round 5 of the GFATM:
- In conjunction with the WHO Regional Office for Europe and WHO office in Moscow, the Secretariat has organized a communications workshop from 14-16 March in Moscow for 25 participants from Ajerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The objective is to familiarize participants with communication concepts and needs assessment to enable them to prepare a strategic communication work plan.
- From 5-7 April, the Secretariat and Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP) will conduct a 3-day workshop for communications consultants from regional and subregional levels to familiarize them with the Round 5 guidelines and the Partnership's strategic communication framework, pedagogy, tools and indicators for TB communication.
- In April and May, these consultants will then be deployed to selected high-priority countries to work with NTPs in developing strategic communication components for their Round 5 proposals. The missions will be conducted in tandem with the WHO Stop TB Department.
Round 5 application guidelines and forms will be made available on 17 March 2005 and must be completed by 10 June 2005. Grant approvals will be made at the end of September 2005. For further information visit: www.theglobalfund.org.
BBC Media Skills Workshops held at WHO, 1-3 March 2005
Media skills workshops were conducted by two BBC trainers at the World Health Organization headquarters with the aim of strengthening key messages around TB.
GLOBAL DRUG FACILITY
Grant Support
- GDF is inviting applications for the 11th Round of GDF grants. Deadline: 11 March 2005. The meeting of the Technical Review Committee will be held in Geneva from 12 to 14 April 2005.
- 2nd Term Grants: Of the 5 countries which have received their final year of GDF grant support, 2 will be moving to the Direct Procurement Service.
Missions
- 11 GDF mission have been conducted in the first 2 months of 2005.
Management
- The new GDF information management system has been launched.
Monitoring
- Based on an in-depth review of 14 countries, the GDF has developed a drug management assessment tool which will be used as guidelines for all future GDF missions. This new tool will be used to identify key bottlenecks, catalyse improvement in drug management by Stop TB Partners, and measure indicators of GDF performance over the course of a 3-year grant.
Procurement
- A multi-million dollar GDF tender for first-line anti-TB drugs was launched in February.
- A training workshop to increase the capacity of manufacturers of TB drugs to meet WHO prequalification standards was conducted by GDF and WHO from 21- 25 February.
- 150,000 of GDF's innovative new Patient Kits were delivered to Indonesia in January, marking the first delivery to a GFATM country.
- The first order was placed for Diagnostic Kits to be used in the first pilot study of the same in Republic of Congo (Brazzaville). Two other pilots studies are scheduled in 2005
NATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
Four Stop TB National Partnerships were successfully launched in 2004: Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil and Uganda. The National Partnerships work under the umbrella organization of the Stop TB Partnership its Secretariat in Geneva. Progress indicators for evaluation purposes of the above National Partnerships will be introduced during the first half of 2005 with countries reporting with actual figures towards the end of 2005. For more details, visit the new National Partnerships web page here.
For more information on national partnerships, contact us here.
POVERTY AND TB
Network for Action on TB and Poverty web site launched.
The Network for Action on TB and Poverty website aims to promote access to DOTS and TB control programmes for poor and vulnerable populations, and to serve as a resource for partners who are fighting against tuberculosis. Posted on the web site is the first newsletter from the Network for Action on TB and Poverty (www.tb-poverty.org/Network-Newsletter.pdf) and the final report of the
Network launch at the 35th IUATLD World Conference on Lung Health in Paris on 29 October 2004.
The TB and Poverty Secretariat Network Announces Student Study Competition.
To support the development of the Network in the Africa region, the Secretariat is running a student operational research proposal competition on "Testing pro-poor approaches in the Africa region." The best 3 proposals will be commissioned, funded and judged. The winner will win a cash prize of $1000 and be invited to present their findings at an international meeting in France (October, 2005). For more information visit: www.tb-poverty.org.
SECOND GLOBAL PLAN TO STOP TB (2006-2015)
Planning Workshop.
- 28 February - 4 March 2005, Montreux, Switzerland.
The workshop brought together Stop TB Partnership focal points from each Working Group to develop regional and global epidemiological scenarios, with accompanying costings, that will inform the development of the Working Group strategic plans and the overall Global Plan.
A report on the workshop will be posted on the Stop TB Partnership website (/globalplan).
The Steering Committee for the Second Global Plan will meet on 2 May in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in conjunction with the Stop TB Coordinating Board meeting.
For more information visit: www.stoptb.org/globalplan/default.asp
FINANCE & RESOURCE MOBILIZATION
Stop TB Partnership Trust Fund
The Stop TB Partnership Trust Fund at WHO is now fully operational and has started receiving contributions from Donors. This is a groundbreaking development as the Partnership was able to negotiate with WHO a much-reduced Programme Support Costs of 3% for procurement of TB Drugs and 6% for other activities. The normal figure for PSC is 13%.
WORKING GROUPS
Advocacy and Communications
- 1st Meeting of the Stop TB Advocacy, Communications and Social Mobilization Working Group, 7-9 February 2005, Geneva, Switzerland.
The first meeting of the ACSM-WG was well attended by 60 professionals in advocacy, health communications, social and resource mobilization, patient activists, health education specialists, representatives from ministries of health, national Stop TB partnerships, and representatives of other Stop TB Working Groups. Joanne Carter of Results USA was elected Chair, Dr. Roberto Tapia of Mexico elected Vice Chair representing countries, and Betrand Kampoer/Dario Abarca Runruil were elected as Vice Chair alternates representing communities. The Report of the meeting will be available by March 2005. For more information visit: www.stoptb.org/wg/advocacy_communication/
Stop TB Working Group on New Diagnostics
- 19 March Economist announcement – FIND Diagnostics and BD
On 19 March, in advance of World TB Day, The Economist magazine will feature a full back-page announcement from FIND Diagnostics, a non-profit organization established with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that specializes in the development of diagnostic tests for infectious diseases for developing countries, and BD, a global medical technology company. For more information on this, visit www.bd.com or www.finddiagnostics.org. Visit the New Diagnostic Working Group site: www.stoptb.org/wg/new_diagnostics/
Stop TB Working Group on New Drugs
- Presentations available from the annual meeting of the Working Group held on October 29, 2004, Paris, France.
To view the meeting summary and download presentation please visit:www.tballiance.org/7_1_1GenericNewsArticles.asp?itemId=545 Visit the New Drugs Working Group site: www.stoptb.org/wg/new_drugs/
Stop TB Working Group on TB/HIV
- Global Fund Round 5: TB/HIV to be integrated into TB and HIV proposals
The Global Fund Board considers that collaboration between TB and HIV programmes is important in settings where HIV is driving the TB epidemic. It has therefore removed TB/HIV as a separate category in Round 5 applications, and countries should review the revised guidelines and forms in view of these changes. Details of collaborative TB/HIV activities can be found in the WHO Interim Policy on Collaborative TB/HIV Activities (click here to download).
"TB/HIV research priorities in resource-limited settings." 14-15 February, WHO, Geneva. Click here for more information.
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu launches the ZAMSTAR TB/HIV study, 15 February, Cape Town, South Africa.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu officially launched a study of community and household interventions to reduce the impact of HIV-related TB at the opening of the Desmond Tutu TB Centre in Cape Town. As part of the Consortium to Respond Effectively to the AIDS/Tuberculosis Epidemic (CREATE) this community randomised trial will study the effects of TB/HIV activities at household and community level in Zambia and South Africa over 5 years. Further information is available on the CREATE website (www.tbhiv-create.org).
- Workshop of The National Forum of PLH Networks in Uganda (NAFOPHANU), 17 December 2004, Kampala, Uganda.
Meeting objectives were to identify bottlenecks in the implementation of collaborative TB activities in Uganda and define ways to enhance the involvement of People Living with HIV/AIDS in TB/HIV advocacy.
- The World Economic Forum officially launches "Doing it Together: managing TB and HIV at the workplace" at the India Economic Summit. Click here to download document .
Visit the TB/HIV Working Group site:www.stoptb.org/wg/tb_hiv/
Stop TB Working Group on DOTS Expansion (DEWG)
Third meeting of Subgroup on Public-Private Mix for DOTS Expansion, 4-6 April, WHO-WPRO, Manila, The Philippines. Visit the DOTS Expansion Working Group site:
www.stoptb.org/wg/dots_expansion/
New World TB Day 2005 web site
In an effort to improve the user friendliness and navigational ease of our current web site, we will present current and new information within a dynamic new template. 
