World TB Day, celebrated on March 24, is a key opportunity to raise awareness of tuberculosis at the highest state level and focus the world’s attention on why over 2 million people still die of a curable and preventable disease. In 2020, a report outlining progress towards the achievement and implementation of global tuberculosis targets of the Political Declaration of the United Nation High-Level Meeting on the fight against TB (UN HLM on TB) held in 2018 was released by the World Health Organization (WHO), which stressed that although high-level commitments and targets have galvanised global and national progress towards ending TB, urgent and more ambitious investments and actions are required, especially in the context of COVID-19 pandemic.
Leading up to World TB Day 2021, the Eastern Europe Central Asia (EECA) region of the Global TB Caucus convened stakeholders from the TB-REP 2.0 project of the TB Europe Coalition (TBEC), WHO Regional Office for Europe, and Stop TB Partnership (STBP) with members of National TB Caucuses.
Parliamentarians, civil society and key partners focused on multisectoral collaboration and accountability to accelerate progress towards achieving the targets of the Political Declaration of the UN HLM on TB, unpacking the gaps and reviewing proposed approaches to achieve the goals.
Key conversations took place around the impact of social determinants on TB development and outcomes (poverty, malnutrition, living conditions etc.) that require joint efforts across sectors. The Multisectoral Accountability Framework (MAF-TB), which was developed and presented as a tool by WHO to foster multisectoral collaborations and accountability for putting political commitments to end TB into practice, defines the important role of all national stakeholders including civil society, community organisations and parliamentarians, in the sustainability of the frameworks.
The discussions
Participants set clear and specific objectives for the meeting:
Collect information on the progress made in meeting the targets set since the UN high-level meeting and make recommendations to parliamentarians to ensure the progress necessary to achieve the agreed targets.
Discuss information on the progress of implementation of MAF-TB and the needed next steps for countries in this regard
Provide a platform for information exchange, experience sharing and training between parliamentarians, representatives of civil society and partners in terms of implementation of MAF-TB
To discuss TB policy current situation in the region: strengths and weaknesses tailored from 2019
To strategize on possible opportunities for collaboration between parliamentarians, technical partners and civil society organisations to mitigate against the impact of COVID-19 on Tuberculosis.
Representatives of National TB Caucuses were in attendance from Ukraine, Tajikistan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus, and discussions were focused on WHO and TBEC MAF-TB pilot countries: Ukraine, Tajikistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova. Presenters from WHO Regional Office for Europe, TBEC and STBP provided information to help measure progress on UN HLM on TB targets to date, and get acquainted with an effective implementation plan for MAF-TB.
Central topics also included people-centered models of care, optimal DR-TB treatment for children, optimal DR-TB treatment for adults, prevention policies, medicines procurement policies.
Taking action to establish MAF-TB
The meeting resulted in Members of Parliament’s elevated awareness and knowledge of the definition of the Multisectoral Accountability Framework to accelerate progress to end the TB epidemic (MAF-TB), an innovative tool for achieving and assessing progress towards the implementation of political commitments and agreed targets toTB at the national, regional and global levels, and its four essential components: Commitment; Action; Monitoring and Reporting; and Review.
All participants committed to closer collaboration to:
Raise awareness of governmental structures and advocate for country coordination and high-level review bodies/mechanisms that will regularly review the TB response;
Include MPs in the high-level review body/mechanism;
Organise national parliamentary/committee hearings to review progress against the UN HLM targets.
Provide parliamentary support for budget allocation, revision of legislation, strategy development and cultural transformation to align with MAF-TB activities and objectives.
Specific actions agreed upon include:
Collect information on the progress towards achieving UNHLM-TB targets and determine parliamentary actions needed to achieve the agreed targets.
Discuss MAF-TB implementation progress in countries and identify next steps;
Provide a platform for information exchange, experience sharing and training between parliamentarians, civil society and partners in implementation of MAF-TB
Strategize on opportunities for collaboration between parliamentarians, technical partners and civil society organisations to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on tuberculosis.
Participants
Members of National TB Caucuses
Hon Jamshed Murtazaqulov, Co-chair of GTBC in EECA region, member of Parliament of Tajikistan
Hon Lada Bulakh, Co-chair of GTBC in EECA region, member of Parliament of Ukraine
Hon Lyudmila Makarina-Kibak, Member of Parliament of Belarus
Hon Valentina Kursevich, Member of Parliament of Belarus
Hon Zarina Kamassova, Member of Parliament of Kazakhstan
Ms Marietta Khurshudyan, expert at the Standing Committee on Health Care and Social Affairs of Armenian Parliament
Speakers
Dr. Sayohat Hasanova, Technical Officer, Joint Tuberculosis, HIV and Viral Hepatitis Program, Division of Country Health Programmes, WHO Regional Office for Europe
Ms Yulia Kalancha, TB Europe Coalition Executive Director
Mr Asgar Ismayilov, Advocacy and Technical Officer Stop TB Partnership, Switzerland
Resources
MAF-TB:
https://www.who.int/tb/publications/MultisectoralAccountability/en/
https://www.who.int/tb/publications/TB-factsheet_4.pdf?ua=1
Report “Step Up for TB 2020” - http://stoptb.org/suft/
The full report of the meeting is available for download in both Russian and English: