On 19th of April the Kazakhstan National TB Caucus relaunched online with new members of parliament, led by Hon Zarina Kamasova, Member of the Committee on Social and Cultural Development of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan as the officially appointed Head of the Caucus.
Baroness Alison Suttie opened the event with words of encouragement for the newly revived Caucus to maintain the current strong momentum in the country, and highlighted exciting elements such as the excellent opportunity for Kazakhstan to have been chosen as a pilot country for implementing the World Health Organization (WHO) Multisectoral Accountability Framework on Tuberculosis (MAF-TB). She encouraged national parliamentarians to adopt the MAF-TB checklist developed by the GTBC into the National Caucus work plan, which will bring together stakeholders to share the responsibility of achieving the UN High Level Meeting on Tuberculosis (UN HLM on TB) Political Declaration targets, ensuring that at the next UN HLM TB in 2023 Kazakhstan will be able to lead by example in stakeholder collaboration to achieve the best possible outcomes for TB patients.
Also discussed was current progress in achieving all goals in the Political Declaration of the UN HLM on TB, identifying opportunities to strengthen multisectoral collaboration and accountability, and the role of CSO and other national TB stakeholders in these collaborations.
Notable outcomes of the event include:
Increased awareness among new members of the National TB Caucus on the concept of multisectoral collaboration and accountability for the TB response, including the role of a coordinating body for multisectoral collaboration and a high-level progress review mechanism
Official parliamentary commitment to revising legislation, strategies and regulations to compliment the tasks and goals of an established MAF-TB and active engagement in implementation
Signing of the Barcelona Declaration by the new members of the National TB Caucus to adopt a national resolution committed to the TB response in Kazakhstan, and the official appointment of Hon Zarina Kamasova as the new head of the National TB Caucus of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Concluding the meeting, Mr. Adenov Malik, Director of the National Scientific Center of Phthisiopulmonology of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan and NTP Manager, presented a call for active support of the implementation of the development of a MAF-TB at the national parliamentary level. He also emphasised the importance of uniting data across all countries in the EECA region to achieve the UNHLM prevention therapy target and the need for deeper engagement of high-level government structures to maintain TB case detection in times of COVID.