Indonesia - A community-led advocacy campaign to mobilize local funding for tuberculosis

Indonesia has made great progress in expanding tuberculosis (TB) services over the last few years, but the decline in TB incidence has been slow and the country still ranks third for the incidence of TB globally. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 98 300 people (37 per 100 000 population) died from TB in Indonesia in 2018 and 845 000 people (316 per 100 000 population) fell ill with the disease; however, only 570 289 were notified, leaving 275 000 people (32% of all people with TB) unreached by national TB services (1). The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (Global Fund) has been funding TB activities in Indonesia since 2003. Its purpose has been to strengthen TB prevention, detection and treatment services, but also to support advocacy activities and, in particular, to raise awareness among policy-makers and secure commitments from the Indonesian Government to strengthen the TB response at central, provincial and district levels. ‘Aisyiyah, a faith-based women’s nongovernmental organization established in 1917, has been one of the principal recipients (PR) of the Global Fund Community TB/HIV grant since 2009. At present, ‘Aisyiyah works in 14 provinces, 130 districts and 2083 subdistricts nationwide as PR. Its branch in Bengkulu province was established in 1968 and is represented in all 10 districts of the province. The Bengkulu branch has been a subrecipient (SR) under both the Global Fund New Funding Mechanism (2016–2017) and the current New Implementation Project (2018–2020). In Bengkulu, the community TB/HIV grant is implemented in three districts with a high TB burden. While the Global Fund grant has enabled the provision of a range of community-based TB services, this case study will focus specifically on the community-led advocacy campaign conducted by ‘Aisyiyah Bengkulu (hereinafter referred to only as ‘Aisyiyah) and its achievements between January 2017 and December 2019.