Parliamentarians from across the world gather in New York to support TB stakeholders and communities as they announced the “Key Asks” for the UN HLM on TB in September
New York, 26 April, 2018: Members of Parliament (MPs) from 32 countries, representing all regions of the world, showed overwhelming engagement for the UN High-Level Meeting (HLM) on TB and support to the ‘Key Asks from TB Stakeholders and Communities` during a two-day consultation held in New York on 25-26 April 2018.
The distinguished group of MPs led by the Global TB
Caucus are urging their Heads of State to attend the
UN General Assembly HLM on September 26 and make meaningful and
concrete commitments to end TB. The parliamentarians were
joined by the Stop TB Partnership, the President of the
General Assembly, UN Missions in New York, the World Health
Organization (WHO), The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria, representatives of TB survivors and
communities, the private sector, researchers and technical
partners.
The
TB Key Asks
were developed over several months of discussions and
consultations with the TB community at large and most
stakeholders and partners. The Key Asks include priority targets
under the five key themes:
- Reach all people by closing the gaps on TB diagnosis,treatmentand prevention;
- Transform the TB response to be equitable, rights-based, and people-centered;
- Accelerate development of essential new tools to end TB;
- Invest the funds necessary to end TB;
- Commit to decisive and accountable global leadership, including regular UN reporting and review.
“It is truly encouraging that we see the momentum already
building up by parliamentarian leaders whose role is critical to
ending TB," said H.E. Mr. Koro Bessho, Permanent Representative
of Japan to the United Nations. Japan and Antigua & Barbuda
are the co-facilitators for the UN HLM on TB. “Any disease
that claims the lives of millions of people deserves immediate
global attention,” said Dr. Aubrey Webson, Permanent
Representative of Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations.
Dr. Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership,
highlighted that the Key Asksare the result of months of
discussions and preparations with representatives across all TB
stakeholders and the community at large. “I’m
grateful we are united and clear on what we would like to see as
the outcome of the UNHLM. The time is now to step up our efforts
in every single country, reach out to our leaders,
partners,peopleand communities and ensure that on 26
September we have the historical HLM on TB that we all call
for, ” said Dr. Ditiu.
Speaking on occasion, Minister Miroslav Lajčák, President
of the UN General Assembly said that the “UN HLM on TB
must not be just another meeting. It must press for bold
commitments, bringing together the voices of champions, affected
communities & survivors.”
In his welcome
address, the Rt Hon Nick Herbert CBE MP from the United Kingdom,
who co-chairs the Global TB Caucus along with South
Africa’s Minister of Health and Chair of the Stop TB
Partnership, Hon Aaron Motsolaedi, said that the “HLM is a
unique opportunity to raise the profile of TB which until now
simply hasn’t commanded adequate attention from global
leaders,” emphasizing that “TB needs this focus at
the top level - it’s the world’s deadliest
infectious disease, killing more people every year than AIDS and
malaria combined. Action to tackle this global catastrophe is
long overdue.”
The Global TB Caucus members endorsed the headline Key Asks,
urging world leaders to use the HLM on TB to commit to a renewed
effort to prevent, diagnose and treat TB a cumulative 40 million
people by 2022 through both public and private sector health
services, including 3.5 million children and 1.5 million people
with drug-resistant TB.
A briefing for UN
Missions took place on Thursday, 26 April evening in UN
Headquarters under the theme “The Human Faces of
TB,” where a group of passionate TB advocates from
Tajikistan, Kenya, Peru, and the United States shared their
personal stories with UN Ambassadors and Parliamentarians and
called on the delegates to take ambitious actions to put the
world on course to ending TB.
Ending the TB epidemic by 2030 is a target of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.” Unless world leaders agree on urgent actions to accelerate the current rate of progress against TB, the SDG target could be missed by more than 160 years at the cost of over a trillion dollars in lost economic output and countless millions of lives.
Source:
Stop TB Partnership
