SDG500 Partnership Roundtable (January 2020)

During the World Economic Forum’s 50th Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Bamboo Capital Partners, Stop TB Partnership, and a coalition of public and private partners launched SDG500, a ground-breaking USD 500 million investment platform to accelerate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

SDG500 will offer exposure to six different funds, as highlighted below, and will target businesses in the agriculture, education, energy, finance, and healthcare sectors across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Pacific regions and Latin America.

  • ABC, an impact investment vehicle targeting small-holder farmers and small and medium agribusinesses in developing countries.
  • BUILD, a fixed income fund aimed at early stage enterprises in the least developed countries.
  • CARE SheTrades, a gender lens fund which will use debt and equity to invest in businesses in Asia.
  • BLOC SmartAfrica and BLOC Latin America, venture capital funds targeting technology enterprises in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific regions, and Latin America.
  • HEAL, a blended finance venture fund to support next generational healthtech solutions for global health, including tuberculosis (TB), in emerging markets and high burden countries.

The Stop TB Partnership and its Accelerator for Impact (a4i) initiative will be the SDG500 partner for HEAL.

The funds will use debt and equity to invest at Seed, Series A and Series B stages in hundreds of businesses in emerging and frontier markets, and aims to address the ‘missing middle’ financing gap that affects entrepreneurs in these markets, where growth is constrained by a lack of access to follow-on financing.

There will be a catalytic first loss layer for the funds designed to encourage and protect senior tranches of funding. Initial sponsors of the first loss include the European Union, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, the Governments of Luxembourg, Togo and Tunisia, CARE and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

Innovation Spotlight on Digital Adherence Technologies (January 2020)

The Stop TB Partnership hosted the Innovation Spotlight on Digital Adherence Technologies to highlight how technologies including 99DOTS, evriMED, VOT and the integrated platform (providing all three options on one platform) are empowering people with TB to manage their treatment and care.

This event also provided a platform for TB REACH grantees from Haiti, Uganda and Ukraine to present and discuss their current data and evidence on the implementation of the above-mentioned technologies across different settings and contexts.

Additional information about the adherence technologies covered during presentations can be found at the links below:

Re-Imagining TB Care Consultation (October 2019)

In advance of the 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Hyderabad, India, the Stop TB Partnership hosted the Re-imagining TB Care Consultation, reflecting the organization’s commitment to making it as easy as possible for all TB affected people to access and receive affordable, quality, and people-centered care.

Participants included TB survivors, national TB program managers, implementers, innovators, and other key partners and stakeholders who used this platform to discuss innovative ways to "re-imagine TB care" now and in the future. The discussion focused on:

  • Integrating Human-Centered Design in the development and delivery of new TB innovations;
  • Leveraging emerging technological solutions such as artificial intelligence, digital health solutions, tele-care, etc. to bring healthcare services closer to all TB affected people; and
  • Providing healthcare providers with a packaged set of solutions across the TB care model.

Read more about the TB Innovations Summit here.

May ’18 - Roundtable Discussion: Barriers in Country Adoption and Access to New, Quality Assured TB and AMR Products and Technologies (by invitation only)

In the lead-up to the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis ("UNHLM on TB"), which will take place on 26 September 2018, it will be critical to show that the TB community is able to unite to jointly develop sustainable solutions that will lead to the end of TB by 2030.

As such, the Stop TB Partnership and the World Economic Forum are organizing an event in May 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland in advance of the 71st World Health Assembly to discuss the key barriers to country adoption and access to new TB products and technologies in high burden countries (HBCs), and the role of multi-sectoral collaboration in bridging the gap.

The roundtable discussion will also bring together key decision-makers, partners, and stakeholders - such as Ministers of Health, civil society and communities, non-governmental organizations, private sector actors (both companies and service providers), donors, and private foundations - to better understand each other’s comparative advantages in facilitating country adoption, and collectively strategize on how the capabilities and expertise of the private sector can ensure that the people affected by TB and service providers have equitable and appropriate access to the TB products and technologies they need and want.

Oct. ’16 - 1st Stakeholder Consultation on a4i

The Stop TB Partnership organized the 1st Stakeholder Consultation on a4i, which was held on 28 October 2016 in Liverpool, United Kingdom in advance of the 27th Union World Conference on Lung Health. The meeting objectives were:

  • Commence and foster a regular dialogue on the barriers and opportunities countries, innovators, and key stakeholders in the TB space face to accelerate the introduction and scale-up of promising, new TB tools and
  • Introduce the a4i mechanism, which plans to directly address these barriers and optimize opportunities for prompt solutions.

The agenda and participant list can be found at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ulj9q18d8qc9pbs/AAAkd_q8dTL8tdKJExsS0vq5a?dl=0.

Oct. ’17 - 1st Focus Group Discussion on Digital Adherence Technologies

The Stop TB Partnership, in collaboration with the Arcady Group, organized the 1st Focus Group Discussion on Digital Adherence Technologies, which was held on 8 October 2017 in Guadalajara, Mexico in advance of the 48th Union World Conference on Lung Health. The meeting objectives were to:

  • Establish a shared understanding regarding adherence taxonomy, importance of proper adherence to existing TB treatments, including current practices and trends regarding treatment observation and monitoring;
  • Share information about the operation, potential benefit, evidence base, uptake trends, what is known and unknown, including clinical outcomes of 99DOTS, digital medication monitors (evriMED), video-observed therapy (VDOT), and Keheala;
  • Understand end-user’s expectations and needs regarding digital adherence technologies;
  • Share perspectives and learnings from current implementation of digital adherence technologies, including necessary conditions and enablers, resources required, and lessons learned; and
  • Identify what additional information countries would require, from a piloting and adopting perspective, to catalyze roll-out of digital adherence technologies at a national level.

The agenda, participants list, presentations, and summary can be found at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rzp2fgz1o9g2wtz/AADry8hZAkAgZ8cPoJO1-qVra?dl=0.

Oct. ’17 - 1st Innovators & Adopters Workshop on TB Diagnostics & Adjunct Technologies

The Stop TB Partnership, in collaboration with FIND, McGill International TB Centre, Unitaid, and World Health Organization, organized the 1st Innovators & Adopters Workshop in TB Diagnostics & Adjunct Technologies, which was held on 9 October 2018 in Guadalajara, Mexico in advance of the 48th Union World Conference on Lung Health. The meeting objectives were:

  • Strengthen collaboration and communication between innovators, country decision-makers and stakeholders, including civil society and communities, and key partners to accelerate the roll-out of new TBDx;
  • Present the critical stages, sequence of activities, and key partners to roll-out new TBDx;
  • Provide innovators with the opportunity to share their experiences along the pathway to roll-out their TBDx;
  • Share information regarding the WHO product validation process, how innovators and countries can leverage TB REACH, Unitaid, and the Global Fund to drive roll-out of TBDx, and why it is important to engage civil society and communities early along the pathway; and
  • Achieve better balance between supply and demand for TBDx.

The agenda, participant list, presentations, and summary can be found at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/esgcu2t8geulkww/AABm1XkzlGiGsyVfkZ7LGXL2a?dl=0.