Engaging affected communities and civil society to end TB
The engagement of communities and civil society is essential to end tuberculosis (TB). It aims to strengthen collaboration and leverage capacities of communities and civil society. The World Health Organization (WHO) End TB Strategy highlights the importance of community and civil society engagement in the response to TB. Similarly, the political declarations of the 2018 and 2023 United Nations (UN) high-level meetings on the fight against TB called for strong engagement of affected communities and civil society in national, regional and global efforts to end TB.
WHO Guidance on engagement of communities and civil society to end tuberculosis emphasizes the involvement of communities in the full programmatic cycle of the TB response, including planning, decision-making, advocacy for sustainable and equitable financing, implementation, monitoring and research. It stresses the importance of close engagement and strong, sustainable partnerships between ministries of health, and civil society and communities affected by TB, for the delivery of people-centred services, building on the concept of “one system” aligned with the vision of health systems that are oriented towards primary health care and that include communities as an integral component.
Through the WHO Civil Society Task Force on Tuberculosis (CSTF-TB), an advisory body, WHO nurtures a powerful collaboration mechanism to mainstream civil society and affected communities’ voices into decision making, policy, programmes and activities at global, regional and country levels. Established in December 2018, the CSTF-TB has a diverse membership selected through an independent selection panel. The group is at the forefront of coordinated stakeholder efforts to formalize mechanisms of civil society engagement in multisectoral action, amplify voices of TB survivors, advocate for increases in domestic funding, sharpen focus on the vulnerable populations, engage in TB research, and identifying social, legal and gender barriers to care and defining solutions.
