Member States’ UN Missions convened at UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday 29th November for a briefing on next year’s UN High-Level Meeting (HLM) on tuberculosis (TB).
The event, which was organized by the Stop TB Partnership and other partners and attended by 55 UN Missions, was titled "United to End TB: A Critical Opportunity to End a Global Emergency." Additional co-sponsors included the Permanent Mission of Thailand to the UN, Permanent Mission of Japan to the UN, Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN, Permanent Mission of the Republic of South Africa to the UN and the World Health Organization.
The briefing provided UN Missions and key constituencies with a progress report on the global fight against TB, and offered an opportunity to hear from governments, UN leadership, donors and civil society about their priorities for the UN High-Level Meeting. Participants emphasized the critical need for political leadership to ensure the meeting is successful and put the world back on track to meet the commitment to end TB by 2030 under the Sustainable Development Goals.
"The time has now come for all of us to step up our efforts to get the world right on track to meet our shared goal of ending TB by 2030. This requires unwavering coordinated efforts, integrated action and sustained political commitment at the highest level possible," said H.E. Mr. Virachai Plasai, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Thailand to the United Nations.
"To stamp out this top infectious killer worldwide and the leading cause of deaths due to anti-microbial resistance by 2030 as promised in the SDGs, we need reinvigorated commitment," said H.E. Mr. Koro Bessho, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations.
"We need to say no more TB infections and no more TB deaths in our lifetime," said H.E. Mr. Jerry Matthews Matjila, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of South Africa to the United Nations.
"Things have changed dramatically - We're moving this disease from a medical issue to a community- and rights-based issue with political will behind it," said Mr. Dean Lewis, Representative of the Civil Society Advisory Panel for the UN HLM on TB.
"You are all instrumental in helping us to ensure the UN HLM has the highest levels of representation and that leaders understand what is at stake," said Dr Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership.
For additional information and photos from the briefing, please visit the Stop TB Partnership’s Twitter feed from 29th November (https://twitter.com/StopTB).