6th February 2019, the Stop TB Partnership 2019 Board meeting, Geneva. The Board of the Stop TB Partnership has issued an urgent call to countries, donors, development agencies and investment partners to "Step up the Fight" and increase funding to at least US$14 billion for the 2020-2022 replenishment cycle of the Global Fund, in order to fulfill promises made at the 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on TB.
A cost-benefit analysis by the Copenhagen Consensus Center (CCC) presented at the Stop TB Partnership Board meeting, shows that TB is one of the best investments among the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). According to the CCC, the benefits that a person treated for TB bestows on a typical national economy in a high TB-burden country works out as US$43 for every US$1 spent. As Bill Gates recently quipped "Investment in health institutions [including the Global Fund] is the best investment I ever made."
Despite this compelling evidence, a serious gap in TB funding has opened up, jeopardizing the UN SDGs, as well as commitments made at the UNHLM on TB last year. The Stop TB Partnership Board has therefore issued an urgent global call-to-action to ‘Step Up The Fight,’ to close the gap and make sure that the goal to end TB by 2030 is on track.
The main actions requested by the Board are:
The call to action was based on deliberations made at the 31st Stop TB Partnership Board held at the Global Health Campus in Geneva, Switzerland in January 2019.