WHO-Government of India Joint Monitoring Mission of the National TB Programme
11 November, New Delhi The World Health Organization (WHO) and Government of India (GoI) along with other partner agencies is conducting a Joint Monitoring Mission (JMM) to review India’s Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) which is a priority programme of the Government of India. The review process will include field visits to different states across the country.
The JMM team comprises over 185 national and international experts from diverse sectors including eminent experts from premiere national and international institutes, the academia, civil society organisations, affected communities, the Global Fund, USAID, World Bank, BMGF, CDC, The Union, FHI 360, William J. Clinton Foundation, Centre for Health Research and Innovation, and Médecins Sans Frontières to name a few.
The JMM team will review India’s progress towards the implementation of the National Strategic Plan (NSP) 2017-25 for TB Elimination from 11 to 22 November 2019. In addition, the JMM will identify gaps in implementation and subsequently make recommendations to the government on transformational improvements in programme implementation as well as future strategic planning for ending TB.
The JMM was launched at an event in New Delhi today and was addressed by Dr Henk Bekedam, WHO Country Representative to India; Mr Sanjeeva Kumar, Special Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW); Mr Vikas Sheel, Joint Secretary, MOHFW; Dr K S Sachdeva, DDG-TB, Central TB Division, MoHFW; Dr Ken Castro, Team Lead, JMM, USAID; Dr Patrick Moonan, Team Lead, Epi Review, CDC, and Diana Weil, Coordinator, Policy and Strategy, Global TB Programme. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Henk Bekedam congratulated the government on conducting the JMM at this important juncture of implementation of India’s National Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis. MoHFW is ready to get feedback and review recommendation to improve the programme and WHO is a proud partner in this endeavour.
Since the programme’s inception, there have been six such missions and the last one was undertaken in March 2015. India accounts for over a quarter of the global TB and MDR TB burden. The RNTCP provides free diagnosis and treatment services to all TB patients in the country.