08 March 2021, Geneva, Switzerland - Today, on International Women’s Day, the Stop TB Partnership marks the vital role that women play in the global fight to end tuberculosis (TB) and in the overall global health arena. Together with partners and stakeholders, the Stop TB Partnership supported the launch of the TB Women network and their 2021-2025 strategic plan and also launched a new position paper by Stop TB Partnership's TB REACH on 'Gender and TB'.
We celebrate today women in leadership. Women who take the lead to make their families, neighborhoods, communities, and countries healthier and happier. At the Stop TB Partnership, we work throughout the year to ensure that women and girls are at the heart of the TB response, our work, and our organization.
To mark the day, and celebrate this work, the Stop TB Partnership hosted an online event to draw attention to these aspects and the need for the international community to deliver on the United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on TB commitments and respond to the Deadly Divide Call to Action. The event focused on the crucial leadership role that women play in the fight to end TB at grassroots, national, and global levels.
Discussions highlighted the many Stop TB Partnership initiatives that place women at the center of the TB response, TB Women (a global network of women affected by TB including TB REACH (Stop TB Partnership’s multilateral funding mechanism); Assessments on Barriers to Access, action plans and monitoring; the Challenge Facility for Civil Society (CFCS) and the External Affairs and Strategy Initiative to Re-imagining TB Care initiative (EASI).
“It is time that we take action on the commitments the international community has made. We must raise our voices and call on global leaders to make sure that concrete steps are implemented to ensure a TB response supporting women and girls,” said Dr. Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership. "We all know what we have to do, so let us press ahead and make it happen. From the Stop TB Partnership and myself, I want to urge all my sisters in the world that together, we can change the world for the better, turning our dreams into reality. Let us unite and let us reach our dreams – one by one.”
