THE government of Canada on May 25, in Geneva, Switzerland, announced a renewed investment of CA$85 million for the Stop TB Partnership’s TB REACH initiative over the next five years.
This new injection of funding will help the Partnership to reach, treat and cure many of the 3.6 million people affected by TB who every year go without proper care.
TB REACH will continue to test innovative, daring and fresh strategies for improving TB detection, service delivery, roll-out of new tools and policies.
The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Canada’s Minister of International Development and La Francophonie made the announcement at the UN Palais des Nations, on the margins of the World Health Assembly which was happening in Geneva.
“Our fight against tuberculosis must become more ambitious and innovative if we are going to end this epidemic for good by 2030. Canada believes supporting the work of TB REACH will bring us closer to that goal,” said Marie-Claude Bibeau.
Along with the government of Canada, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged US$7 million to fund TB REACH.
This funding from the Gates Foundation will complement Canada’s investment. The TB REACH project also operates in Zambia.
The Stop TB Partnership’s TB REACH initiative was launched in 2010 with an initial 5-year award from the Government of Canada.
The initiative provides grants to partners for testing innovative strategies and technologies aimed at increasing the number of people diagnosed and treated for TB, decreasing the time to appropriate treatment and improving treatment success rates.
It combines fast-track, results-based financing and rigorous, monitoring and evaluation to produce results, so other donor agencies and/or national governments can scale up successful approaches and maximize their own investments.
The evidence TB REACH grantees generate around innovative strategies and technologies helps to inform national and global policy and ultimately serves to accelerate reductions in TB incidence.
Between 2010 and 2016, TB REACH provided 142 grants in 46 countries worth over $95 million. Working in close collaboration with National TB Programmes, TB REACH grantees have diagnosed and treated more than two million TB patients in project areas and saved nearly 600,000 lives.
Over the next five years, the programme is expected to launch four calls for proposals through 2020. The areas of focus for these calls will be decided through consultations with partners, including representatives of those most affected by the disease.
Thanks to Hallie Detrick for this information which she provided to me on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in her introduction to the TB REACH Project in Zambia.
I am sure I will be able to communicate with the TB REACH project personnel so that we can share more information on what they are doing in Zambia in treatment and halting further spread of TB in Zambia.
TB, as we might all be aware, has in recent years been related to HIV and has become one of the major killer diseases in third world countries such as Zambia together with malaria and AIDS.
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