Unprecedented political support towards ending TB through 25 National TB Parliamentarian Caucuses
The Global TB Caucus was launched in October 2014 with the purpose of building new political support to tackle the world's deadliest epidemic. At that time, there were only five groups of parliamentarians working on the disease at the national level: Brazil, Canada, Japan, USA and the UK and no international parliamentary groups coordinating action on the disease.
In September 2015 Heads of State endorsed the Sustainable
Development Goals and agreed to end TB by 2030. Since the launch
of the Global TB Caucus, under the leadership of the Caucus
co-chairs, Mr. Nick Herbert, Member of Parliament (UK), and Dr.
Aaron Motsoaledi, Chair of the Stop TB Partnership Board and
Minister of Health, South Africa, the picture has changed
dramatically. Regional networks have been launched in Africa,
the Americas, the Asia Pacific and Europe, and a landmark
convention signed with the Francophonie Parliamentary
Association to create a network for French-speaking
countries.
Fourteen national parliamentary groups launched across the world
in 2016. Over a thousand parliamentarians participated in these
launches bringing unprecedented political attention to the
disease. This progress is set to continue early in 2017
with at least another seven national groups set to launch by
World TB Day, bringing the global total up to at least
25.
“The launch of national caucuses around the world is a
promising sign that the political profile of TB is
rising”, said Mr. Nick Herbert, Member of Parliament and
co-chair of the Global TB Caucus. “Establishing these
groups, however, is not enough. The real test is whether
parliamentarians can be effective in holding their governments
to account for the quality of their TB programmes, and whether
they can deliver increased resources and better policies to
tackle the disease."
The Caucus has targeted building a group in every G20 country
and every High TB Burden country by 2020 and is ahead of
schedule to achieve that.
“The Stop TB Partnership’s Global Plan to End TB
launched in November 2015 outlines a set of paradigm shifts that
are essential to ending TB by 2030, including changed and
inclusive leadership and the mobilization of parliamentarians
and government officials in the TB fight”, said Dr. Lucica
Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership.
“Hosting the Secretariat of the Global TB Caucus and
through our network of country partners, the Stop TB Partnership
is proud to support the launch of these National TB Caucuses,
which are and will be a huge asset as we look towards clear
political leadership in countries towards ending TB.”
The countries with National Caucuses are: Brazil, Canada, Japan,
USA, Algeria, Australia, Gambia, Georgia, Kenya, Mexico,
Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda
and Zimbabwe. The following are scheduled to launch in 2017:
Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, Ukraine, South Africa, Malawi,
Philippines, India, and Zambia.
For more information on the work of the Global TB Caucus and how
to set up a National TB Caucus, please visit www.globaltbcaucus.org.
Source:
Stop TB Partnership
