The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Programme and the Stop TB Partnership Global Working Group on Public-Private Mix (PPM Working Group) for tuberculosis (TB) prevention and care is organizing its 17th global meeting on PPM from 2 to 4 November 2022.
The PPM Working Group meeting will bring together national TB programme managers, policy makers, representatives from the private sector, civil society, academia, field experts, international technical partners and development agencies to share experiences and discuss strategies to accelerate public-private sector engagement efforts. WHO provides the Secretariat for the PPM Working Group, that provides a platform to support countries in enhancing collaboration between national TB programmes (NTPs) and diverse public, voluntary, corporate and private health care providers for TB care in different settings.
The meeting will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, where PPM has long been an integral part of the national TB response. Field visits to sustained PPM sites within Nairobi will be organized to give first-hand exposure to participants on the approaches used in the country to scale up PPM implementation.
Over 100 participants are expected at the meeting, comprising of national TB programme managers from high TB-burden countries, especially PPM priority countries in Africa and Asia, national and international non-governmental organizations, representatives of private care providers and their associations, civil society, academic institutions, technical and financial partners and WHO staff from country and regional offices, and headquarters.
The main objectives of the meeting are to:
1. Review global, regional and national progress in prioritizing PPM to close gaps in access to prevention and care services including through the roll-out of the PPM roadmap.
2. Share best practices and innovations in private sector TB service delivery in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. Discuss ongoing efforts to strengthen PPM monitoring and accountability, as part of the roll out of the WHO’s multisectoral accountability framework on TB (MAF-TB).