Stop TB Partnership

THE STOP TB PARTNERSHIP LAUNCHES THE CHALLENGE FACILITY FOR CIVIL SOCIETY 2019

23 June 2020, Geneva, Switzerland - The Stop TB Partnership is pleased to announce the successful grantees under the Challenge Facility for Civil Society (CFCS) 2020, which will support 31 organizations from 13 countries and six regions with grants ranging from USD 20 000 to USD 100 000, for a total of USD 2,5 million. For the largest CFCS call for proposals, we received 252 applications requesting an astounding USD 47 million in funding. As such, the importance and need to fund civil society and community-based monitoring, advocacy and actions have never been clearer, especially now with the serious disruptions to TB programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Supported mainly by USAID and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, CFCS is the Stop TB Partnership grant mechanism for TB affected community and civil society grassroots organizations. It supports national, regional and global advocacy efforts as well as on the ground efforts to transform the TB response so that it promotes and protects human rights and gender equality.

"Civil society has a critical role in supporting high burden communities to improve access and quality to TB services for all. The support for local partners to implement local solutions is a key component of USAID's Global Accelerator to End TB and reach the UNGA TB targets," said Cheri Vincent, USAID TB Division Chief.

"I am very happy that we are able to step up and increase the funding for civil society and grassroots organizations in such an impressive manner. With 31 grantees we are increasing the in-country Stop TB partners and strengthening the number and variety of partners that support the TB programs and governments to achieve the UNHLM targets to end TB," said Dr. Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director, Stop TB Partnership.

"The Global Fund supports countries to find the missing people with TB - a fundamental element of the effort to end the disease. It is also critical that we invest in the fight against COVID-19. The knock-on effects of COVID-19 on the fight against TB could be catastrophic. Through community-based interventions, we must invest urgently to mitigate that impact," said Dr. Eliud Wandwalo, Head of Tuberculosis, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

For more information on CFCS, please click here.

CFCS grants will support community and civil society actors at national, regional and global levels to implement key actions to achieve the targets and commitments made in the UN High-Level Meeting Declaration on TB. In recent years many countries identified community, rights, and gender (CRG) barriers faced by TB affected communities. CFCS grants will cover a range of activities to address these barriers, including:

• Accountability and advocacy to achieve the UNHLM targets and commitment
• Human rights advocacy, removing legal barriers and law reform
• Implementing local mitigation measures against COVID-19 and monitoring the impact of COVID-19 on the TB response
• Community mobilization, activism and empowerment
• Community-based monitoring, using OneImpact and other solutions
• Women’s empowerment and gender-sensitive care
• Reaching key populations (including miners, transgender, refugee populations and health care workers)
• Addressing stigma and conducting TB stigma assessments
• Conducting TB CRG Assessments

The Stop TB Partnership looks forward to supporting this year’s grantees as they work to augment and embed CRG for an equitable TB response and to achieve the UNHLM targets by 2022.

CRG tools that organizations will use can be found here.