6-8 February 2024, Brasilia, Brazil.

The session ‘2023 UNHLM on TB – Way Forward’ will recall the commitments made in the UNHLM political declaration, present the country share of global treatment targets, highlight the remarkable progress made by countries in 2022 and 2023 in increasing access to TB diagnosis and treatment, lay out key upcoming challenges in the efforts to end TB, and discuss Stop TB Partnership’s priorities for advocacy and partners engagement for 2024. The session will start with a statement by the communities followed by a framing presentation from Stop TB Partnership, a presentation from WHO and a Panel of Ministers of Health. The Ministers of Health will talk about their achievements in 2023 and their plans to meet the UNHLM commitments, including new initiatives being launched in their countries. The session will end with a set of Board decision points.

Latin America has a lower burden of TB than other regions, which presents its own challenges and opportunities. After hearing from the Secretariat on the follow-up from the Varanasi innovation session and global updates, this session will offer the opportunity to hear from innovators from the region from different aspects of the TB response including product developers, local implementers, national TB programs and policy makers. Speakers from Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Paraguay and Peru will offer examples of how the region is working to eliminate TB despite lower levels of external funding. With proper support, bold strategies and targeted interventions, Latin America offers an opportunity to consider the possibility of TB elimination at subnational levels in the coming years.

The majority of the presentations will be speaking in Spanish and Portuguese and translation will be available.

In this session, Stop TB’s Global Drug Facility (GDF) aims to summarize key 2023 results, present common challenges encountered that can limit access to TB products, and align with stakeholders on how best to address these access challenges in a coordinated manner going forward.

GDF will present on its record-breaking year in 2023, supplying more than $320 million in TB products to 134 countries, including 56 countries procuring via GDF with domestic funds. Dramatic price reductions for key TB products resulted in more than $32 million in savings for countries and donors; and GDF’s integrated, end-to-end approach averted potential stockouts in 128 countries. 

National TB Programmes were highly successful in adopting new, 6-month BPaLM regimens for DR-TB treatment and many have planned for national scale-up of rifapentine-based regimens for TB prevention in 2024. Despite these gains, several countries encountered challenges when procuring TB medicines locally, which, when combined with global supply constraints for some medicines, resulted in an increase in the number and size of emergency orders placed with GDF to avert or minimize stockouts in countries.

The GDF presentation will be followed by statements from global and national stakeholders who will present their experiences – successes and challenges – in promoting access to TB medicines over the past year.  A Board-wide discussion at the end of the session will enable all stakeholders to align on the best approach to work together to address access these and other access challenges. Ideas generated and commitments made will be translated into critical decision points that will serve as a roadmap for the coming year.

The Board session on Global Fund will highlight the ambitious country applications to Grant Cycle 7, the large unfunded quality demands from countries, the funding for TB from the Covid-19 Response Mechanism, the GF launched process on allocation and disease split, the start of the development of the investment case for the next replenishment, and the efforts being made as well as challenges faced in scaling up rapid molecular tests for TB within Global Fund grants.The session will have a presentation from the Global Fund updating the Board with recent developments. This will be followed by a presentation from the Stop TB Partnership about the TB perspective and the work done by Stop TB Partnership for ensuring increased and impactful Global Fund investments in TB. It is expected that a few countries and civil society board members will make their interventions about their experiences and perspectives with Global Fund. The session will end with a set of decision points.

The 90 minutes session will introduce to the Board OneImpact community-led monitoring  (CLM) – the approach, the digital platform, and its global use. It will explain how OneImpact CLM is central to empowering and connecting people with TB as well as to enhancing national accountability efforts in TB. During the session,  the team of NTP manager Nigeria and the lead CLM implementing partner will explain how OneImpact Nigeria is advancing a rights-based approach to TB in Nigeria. “OneImpact Family” will also be launched by TBpeople Ukraine; a global initiative for an empowered, connected and accountable TB community.  The session aims to highlight throughout the need for continued commitment for OneImpact CLM scale up and institutionalization to end TB by 2030.  

The session aims to update the Board on the status of implementation of the Action Plan in Response to Independent Review of Allegations of Racism and Misconduct at the Stop TB Partnership in addition to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) progress in the Secretariat since the last Board Meeting. The session will seek to reaffirm the continued commitment by the Secretariat on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), with a view to maintain the achievements of all key points of the Board Action Plan and advance Secretariat-specific actions to strengthen diversity and equity in staffing, people management, as well as a safe and inclusive working environment. The presentation will be delivered by Mikkel Broholt, Director of Operations, Stop TB Partnership Secretariat.

There will also be an update on the work of the Finance Committee, including the presentation of the 2022 Financial Management Report and the preliminary 2023 financial outputs. The Secretariat will provide the timelines for the preparation and submission of the Secretariat Budget for 2025 and Financial Management Report for 2023 before the next Board meeting in December 2024.

The presentation will be delivered by the Chair of the Finance Committee, Cheri Vincent and Ramona Rata, Finance Manager, Stop TB Partnership Secretariat.