30 August 2018, Bangkok, Thailand - More than 140 people from over 30 countries representing 50 different projects gathered in Bangkok, Thailand from 27 to 30 August in the largest grantee event the Stop TB Partnership’s TB REACH initiative organized to date. The capacity-building workshop focused on strengthening grantees’ ability to measure the impact of their projects following the latest round of funding (Wave 6).
The diverse group of implementers included TB survivors, community-based organizations, NGOs, faith-based organizations, universities, National TB Programs and the private sector. Participants were initiated to fully engage with the different TB REACH Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) concepts and operationalize them for their respective project interventions. The four-day event included sessions on improving both case detection and treatment outcomes for people with TB for the first time.
"This is probably the most important milestone for new TB REACH grantees as the meeting provides the basis for how our partners measure their progress and think about how their work is impacting the lives of people with TB who are missed and how to provide better support for those who are on treatment. TB REACH supports new, fresh out of the box ideas, and we need to ensure the successful projects can continue and expand their work," said Dr Jacob Creswell, Head of Innovation and Grants, who is leading the work on the TB REACH initiative.
The 50 grantees, active in a range of interventions from testing new diagnostic and screening tools, new technologies over monitoring treatment adherence to developing new products to help patient and provider education, moved through a diverse offer of sessions. The workshop included interactive sessions with the independent M&E team to tailor the M&E framework to the specific projects, group discussions on empowering women and girls and sustainability, workshops on data management and research methods with a team from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center, and presentations from previous TB REACH grantees about their experiences and results.
The Grantee Workshop was further used to orient grantees to TB REACH’s online grant management portal which all funding recipients will use for quarterly reporting, tracking finances and storing key documents. As the project implementation starts giving results, TB REACH will work with them to share and disseminate results through a variety of channels.
Under Wave 6, TB REACH is funding 42 projects in 28 countries with USD17 million (42% of the grants are from Africa, 35% from Asia, 7% in Eastern Europe/Central Asia, 5% in Latin America and 10% comprise multi-country grants). The grants support cutting-edge interventions in TB case finding and care and will improve diagnosis, treatment and support for people with TB.