Deadline for applications: 5 March 2021 at 17:00 Geneva time
|
27 January 2021, Geneva, Switzerland - Stop TB Partnership’s TB REACH initiative launches its Wave 9 round of funding today, focused on drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB).
In September 2018, the United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB (UNHLM on TB) set the stage for high-level attention and action. This meeting established the ambitious target of diagnosing and enrolling an additional 40 million people in TB treatment by 2022, including detection and enrolment of treatment of 1.5 million people with DR-TB.
Through Wave 9 funding, TB REACH seeks bold proposals that will address the shortcomings in DR-TB care and treatment. The proposed interventions should aim to reduce initial or pre-treatment loss in follow up for people with DR-TB, use innovative approaches to expand access to all-oral treatment regimens, or improve treatment outcomes for people with DR-TB.
Wave 9 funding is being launched in collaboration and with financial support and guidance from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and additional support from Global Affairs Canada.
Funding opportunities will be available to local, non-governmental organizations from 24 USAID priority countries.
Applications from the following countries are eligible: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mozambique, Mynmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
TB REACH, established in 2010 with the leadership of Global Affairs Canada, has funded ground-breaking approaches and technologies aimed at increasing the number of people diagnosed and treated for TB, decreasing time to treatment, and improving treatment success. TB REACH combines fast-track, results-based financing and rigorous external monitoring and evaluation (M&E), so other donor agencies and/or national governments can scale-up successful approaches and maximize their investments.
As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, it is more important than ever before to strengthen the fight to end TB. It is predicted that up to 6.3 million more people will develop TB between now and 2025, and over 1 million more people will die due to lack of proper diagnosis and treatment during COVID-19 lockdowns. Recently available data show significant reductions in TB case notifications in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, setting the TB community back many years. COVID-19 is a tragedy, but we must ensure that we don’t lose unnecessary lives, work, and investments by decreasing our efforts and attention towards TB, a curable disease.
“With the area of focus on DR-TB in Wave 9, we are looking forward to all of the new ideas our partners will bring. There are always so many great proposals for interventions to help and never enough money to fund them all, so we are grateful for USAID's support. Wave 9 is a great demonstration of how the TB REACH grant platform can be used to address different issues and source innovations across various areas in the fight to end TB,” said Dr. Jacob Creswell, Head of the Innovations and Grants Team at Stop TB Partnership.
