Stop TB Partnership Challenge Facility for Civil Society Round 10 US$7.5 million available in the LARGEST EVER call for proposals

We need Civil Society, Communities and TB survivors to recover from dramatic impact of COVID-19 on TB response

23 April 2021, Geneva, Switzerland - The Stop TB Partnership today launched an important call for proposals – its largest to date – consisting of USD 7.5 million to support its Challenge Facility for Civil Society (CFCS). Round 10 of the CFCS will support TB-affected community and civil society organizations to engage in country-level efforts towards advocating, networking and responding to the devastating impact of COVID-19 on the TB response and accelerate action to meet the United Nations Political Declaration on TB global targets on combating tuberculosis (TB) by the 2022 deadline.

The funds will be used to support TB-affected community and civil society organizations to work and contribute towards three key areas:

1. Ensuring effective advocacy and engagement of different national stakeholders – including Stop TB partners, donors, private sector and technical partners to monitor and guarantee that the UN TB targets are met by 2022 and to support the efforts to organize a UNHLM on TB in 2023;
2. Ensuring and supporting National TB Programme recovery efforts from COVID-19 will contribute to meet the UNHLM targets, including leveraging COVID-19 donor opportunities for TB; and
3. Transforming the TB response to be rights-based, gender transformative, and people-centered, aligned with the UN Political Declaration on the Fight Against TB and the Call to Action from A Deadly Divide: TB Commitments vs. TB Realities.

The 2020 TB data, modelling studies, and community-based surveys have highlighted that COVID-19 dramatically impacts the TB response, has a devastating impact on people affected by TB and their communities, but it also exacerbates existing inequities and human-rights-related barriers to access. A Deadly Divide: TB Commitments vs. TB Realities, a communities report, emphasizes that promoting human rights principles as the non-negotiable foundations of the TB response and ensuring TB-affected communities and civil society lead and are central to these efforts. It is imperative, now more than ever, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. While high-level commitments and targets spurred progress towards ending TB, these efforts are now facing setbacks, and there is an even more urgent need for ambitious investments and actions in the TB response.

Application deadline: Friday, 21 May 2021, 18:00, Geneva time.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has, to date, had a devastating impact on people affected by TB as well as TB programs across the world, setting back our efforts by years and years.  We are running out of time to reach the UNHLM TB Targets but what is really at stake here is that we have thousands and thousands of people dying every day of TB and we don’t save them. With the generous support of USAID and the Global Fund TB Strategic Initiative, we are, however, confident that we can start making up for lost time and get the TB recovery efforts firmly back on track,” said Dr. Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership. 

“The CFCS Round 10 call for proposals will be used to ensure that in all the eligible countries we have communities, civil society, TB survivors, networks and partners working together to advocate, raise awareness towards ending TB by 2030, increasing political commitment, supporting the national TB response towards ensuring that everyone that needs diagnosis, treatment, care and support for TB, starting with the most vulnerable and at risk, can access the services they deserve.”
 
About CFCS
As a multi-donor mechanism predominantly supported by USAID and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria TB Strategic Initiative, the CFCS is the Stop TB Partnership’s grant mechanism for TB affected community, civil society, and grassroots organizations to transform the TB response so that it promotes and protects human rights and gender equality. Strengthening community and civil society actor engagement is an ethical and programmatic imperative in this pursuit.
 
Who can apply?
Country-level initiatives are key to ending TB and proposals from countries will be prioritized. However, there is also an acknowledgment that regional and global level initiatives play an important role in supporting the country-level efforts. Applicants working in any of the following countries or regions are eligible to apply for CFCS Round 10 funding.