Background Information
1. The Global Partnership to Stop TB
1.1. What does the Partnership provides
1.2. The strategic objectives (as stated in the Global Plan to Stop TB)
2. Stop TB Partners' Forum
2.1. The functions/responsibilities of the Forum
2.2. Organization of Forum meetings and follow-up action
3. Background to the 2nd Stop TB Partners' Forum
1. The Global Partnership to Stop TB The Global Partnership to Stop TB is a global movement to accelerate social and political action to stop the spread of tuberculosis around the world. The Stop TB mission is to increase access, security, and support to:
- ensure that every TB patient has access to TB treatment and cureprotect vulnerable populations from TB
- reduce the social and economic toll that TB causes to families, communities, and nations.
The Partnership's approach is a coordinated, multinational, multisectoral global effort to control TB. It operates within the framework of "The Global Plan to Stop TB," a strategy document or "business plan" developed and adopted through a consensus building process that culminated in its launch at the 2001 Partners' Forum meeting of all principal stakeholders. The Global Plan to Stop TB is a road map to the work programme of the Partnership to the year 2005.
- a forum for discussion to develop global consensus in a variety of areas related to TB controla mechanism for global advocacy and mobilisation of resourcesa means of identifying areas of need and of finding sources of support to address the needsa way to encourage/facilitate a multisectoral approach internationally, regionally and nationally
- an incubator for innovative new approaches
1.2 The strategic objectives as stated in the Global Plan to Stop TB are to
- expand DOTS coverageadapt DOTS to address the challenges of HIV-TB co-infection and multi-drug resistant TBaccelerate the development of new and improved TB drugs, vaccines and diagnostics
- broaden the partnership.
2. Stop TB Partners' Forum Globally, the Forum consists of an assembly of stakeholders and is the main coordinating body of the Stop TB Partnership. Its overall purpose is to promote and enable the acceleration of action to stop TB, through networking and exchange of relevant information with all involved. All who have an interest in accelerating action to stop TB can participate, including representatives from relevant areas of science, policy-makers, financial donors, country level managers and TB practitioners, the private sector, civil society and those involved in advocacy and communications. Special attention should be given to ensuring that high-burden countries (representing patients and field level activities) strongly participate.
2.1. The functions/responsibilities of the Forum are
- to identify problems and new challenges and to exchange information to consolidate and increase partners' commitment, and maintain and reinforce high-level political commitment, to Stop TBto create and exploit opportunities for advocacy, communications and social mobilization
- to review overall progress towards implementation of the Global Plan to Stop TB, review reports presented by the Coordinating Board, and make recommendations to the Coordinating Board.
2.2. Organization of Forum meetings and follow-up action The Forum meets regularly, at least once every two years. The frequency of the meetings is flexible and can be adjusted at each Forum. The Board is responsible for preparing the agenda, reports on the deliberations of the Forum, clearing such reports with the Chairperson of the Forum and disseminating the reports to the Global Partnership to Stop TB as a whole and to the public at large. While the Forum provides a global review and recommendations, it delegates to the Board the detailed, specific actions required to implement the mission of the Stop TB Partnership.
3. Background to the 2nd Stop TB Partners' Forum In March 2000, the Stop TB Partnership convened a Ministerial Conference on TB & Sustainable Development in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The conference brought together ministers of health, finance, and development planning from 20 countries that account for almost 80% of the global TB burden, together with high-level representatives of UN agencies, donor countries, and technical agencies.Through the Amsterdam Declaration to Stop TB, the 20 high-burden countries committed themselves to accelerated action against TB and called for support in finances, coordination and TB drugs. In response to the Amsterdam Declaration, several major initiatives were launched by the Stop TB Partnership: the Global Plan to Stop TB, working groups on DOTS Expansion, TB/HIV, MDR TB, research and development, and the Global Drug Facility (GDF). The Stop TB Partnership has expanded from 75 members in 2000 to over 250 in 2002, reflecting growing interest and commitment to global TB control.
Just 18 months after the groundbreaking Amsterdam Declaration to Stop TB in March 2000, the 1st Stop TB Partners' Forum was convened in Washington, D.C. on 22-23 October 2001. This meeting, a milestone in the chronicle of global TB control, brought together some 200 participants from around the world, including representatives from 18 of the 22 TB high-burden countries. This national presence showed the resolute commitment of hardest-hit countries to come to grips themselves with the TB crisis in their midst. The Washington Commitment is a declaration endorsed by all Forum participants, initiating a countdown to reaching the global TB targets for the following 50 days, 50 weeks and 50 months.
With the Amsterdam Declaration in 2000 and the Washington Commitment in 2001, we have finally secured the political commitment and operational mechanisms needed to control TB and are poised to make rapid progress against the disease towards reaching the 2005 targets.
But the Stop TB partnership faces major challenges that require engagement of entities outside of the regular TB community, including human resources for health, primary care services, sustainable finances, social mobilization for health, and private and corporate sector involvement. The 2nd Stop TB Partners' Forum will provide a timeline and act as catalyst to address the above challenges.