TB Europe Coalition released a position paper with recommendations for stakeholders in countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) to ensure a sustainable and responsible transition from donor support, and continued scale up of TB and HIV activities.
TB and HIV epidemics still represent a serious threat to public health in the region. Europe has the fastest growing HIV epidemic and the highest rates of MDR-TB in the world. Many countries in EECA substantially rely on international funding to tackle specific diseases, including HIV and TB. External donor funding is still very often the only source to finance programmes targeting vulnerable groups and key affected populations.
As the economies of the region are growing, countries are gradually becoming ineligible for development assistance, including donor support to their health systems. This situation is raising concerns that funding gaps may not be met by increases in domestic funding, putting at risk the progress made so far in TB and HIV response.
There is a need for sustainable transition to domestic funding, ensuring that TB and HIV programmes will be effectively continued, and more importantly scaled up, after the withdrawal of international donors, with national governments taking the responsibility and ownership of the response. Transition is a complex process and demands significant structural adjustments, effective planning, implementation and monitoring. All this requires long-term planning, as well as additional and more effective use of resources.
TB Europe Coalition published a comprehensive position paper that outlines the main challenges that needs to be taken into account when countries are transitioning, with concrete examples about what happens when countries are not able or not ready to take over from external donor support, causing negative impacts on TB response.
Transition is a complex process that must involve all interested stakeholders: governments, civil society, donors, EU institutions and members of the parliament. They all have a shared responsibility to ensure no-one is left behind during transition processes.
Source: TB Europe Coalition