Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board Meeting opens in Paris
14 April 2015 - Paris, France - The 26th Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board meeting hosted by France at the French Ministry of Health opened in Paris today. The high-level Board meeting is chaired by the Minister of Health for South Africa and Chair of the Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board, Dr Aaron Motsoledi and the Vice Chair, Dr Joanne Carter, Executive Director of RESULTS USA.
The Board meeting was also attended by Ministers of Health and
representatives from France, Brazil, India and Mozambique as
well as heads of the agencies from UNAIDS, the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, TB & Malaria, and UNITAID, and the
newly-appointed United Nations Special Envoy for TB, Dr Eric
Goosby.
France's Minister of Health, Social Welfare
and Women's Rights, Ms Marisol Touraine welcomed the Board to
France and stressed the importance of TB as a shared
responsibility to build accessible health systems, and called
for continued mobilization at the national, regional and global
level to end TB as an epidemic and reach the Sustainable
Development Goals.
Opening the morning's session on
BRICS and TB, the Vice Chair Dr Carter said, "Thank you so much
Minister Motsoaledi for your bold efforts with other BRICS
leaders on TB, including those in the room, for your bold
targets for screening vulnerable groups launched in South Africa
on World TB Day, and for your work to make TB a priority
globally. Minister Touraine, we’re very grateful for your
hosting us and for your important comments today, and I would
like to acknowledge the enormous importance of France’s
leadership and continued support in the fight against TB."
"We
are at a turning point in TB control with promising new tools,
increased political commitments globally and shared
responsibility from affected countries. We are welcoming France
hosting this Board Meeting, a country historically a leader in
global public health -- but now, is not the time to decrease
donor funding even in tough economic times like these. Within a
tight budget, leaders in the North must understand that
investing in TB is a smart choice for the future to avoid
heavier costs in treatment, care and loss of human lives and
productivity," said Patrick Bertrand, Executive Director of
Global Health Advocates Paris who supported the Stop TB
Partnership in organizing the Board meeting in France.
Briefing documents from the Coordinating Board
meeting are available on the
Stop TB Partnership website. Decision points will be made available at the end of the
two-day meeting tomorrow.
The Stop TB Partnership
Coordinating Board provides leadership and direction, monitors
the implementation of agreed policies, plans and activities of
the Partnership, and ensures smooth coordination among Stop TB
Partnership components.
Source:
Stop TB Partnership
