Civil society

About one-third of people who develop tuberculosis (TB) globally are not reached by current health services or systems. Meaningful community engagement is critical to improve the reach and sustainability of TB services and accelerate progress towards ending TB by 2030.

The WHO ENGAGE-TB approach guides the implementation of integrated community-based TB activities within existing health and development programmes. WHO supports this by providing technical guidance, promoting standardized monitoring and evaluation, establishing and nurturing partnerships between national programmes and civil society organizations, and offering training and technical assistance.

Through the Civil Society Task Force on TB, 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 Task Force 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.