Stop TB Partnership

Wave 7 TB REACH

Gender and TB: A Stop TB Partnership Paper

The 'Gender and TB: A Stop TB Partnership Paper' highlights that the Stop TB Partnership supports countries in achieving universal access to TB prevention, care, treatment and support services and promotes country- and community-led responses towards a world without TB. It argues that a gender-based TB response must find a balance between assessing and addressing epidemiological gender differences and broader economic, social and cultural gender differences. It notes that gender blind TB programming can result in the reinforcement and perpetuation of harmful societal gender norms, which in turn, undermine health for all. All people – men, boys, women, girls and gender minorities – should be provided with TB care and support services that are available, accessible, acceptable, and of high quality, free from discrimination and stigma.

This paper draws on published literature related to TB and gender, the experience of TB REACH Wave 7 Women’s Empowerment work, supported by Global Affairs Canada and the findings of the Community Rights and Genders assessments, supported by USAID and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) to:

• Synthesize what is known about gender and TB burden, care and treatment outcomes;
• Highlight current issues of gender inequality in the TB response by setting out ways in which the TB response currently reinforces negative gender norms and current barriers to change; and
• Suggest ways forward for a TB response that both meets the gender-based needs of all people affected by TB and serves to improve the general position of women and girls in society.