^#2023TBHLM

^{Affected Communities and Civil Society Coordination Hub}

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^{May 18, 2023}

Community Action and Mission Meetings

Community Picnic and Briefing Session

Focus of the Hour – Political Declaration Zero Draft

What is the Political Declaration?

• Formal statement and outcome document adopted by member states during a UN meeting.
• Outlines shared understandings, commitments, priorities and ways forward
• Guides national / international actions and provides a framework for policy development and resource mobilization.
• Demonstrates political will and global cooperation
• Raises awareness and drives international attention
• Monitors progress and supports accountability

Initial Assessment of the Political Declaration Zero Draft

It is weak and “lack luster” with lots of fluffy language lacking specific, time bound targets (only OPs with specificity (although not necessarily accurate or ambitious enough) = 7, 15, 16 & 19

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• There are no numerical targets for diagnosis, treatment and prevention - including for children
• No commitments to or mentions of pregnancy/pregnant, lactating people and adolescents as KVPs + no naming of KVPs
• Little recognition of civil society and affected communities as equal partners
• No mentions or commitments to gender responsive, gender equity or sensitive TB responses
• No commitments to establishing real-time data
• Weak commitment to taking a rights-based approach (including no mention of privacy and confidentiality and weak approach to stigma reduction, with no commitments to work toward the elimination of TB-related stigma)
• No mention of TB survivors
• No mention of data sharing or IP/TRIPS waivers
• No commitment to access conditionalities for publicly funded research
• Weak financing commitments - with no mention of fair shares or expectations of domestic funding commitments for HBCs

Ultimately it is a regression from ambition seen in the 2018 political declaration.

We need to get our reaction out to targets ASAP (No later than EOD Monday)

Calls to Action!

1 - Review the original and Hub’s work in progress improved zero draft(s) and leave comments on the improved zero draft re anything missing or in need of additional language changes

2 - Be / get ready to engage your targets (relevant ministries, NTPs, missions, etc.) with red lines and asks for strengthening the language in alignment with our red lines / improved zero draft

What you can expect from us:

• Consolidated improved zero draft from community perspective
• Red lines 1 pager
• Hub statement in reaction to the zero draft (for your use or adaptation)
• Draft / template email for sending to targets

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ALL BY MONDAY AM!

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AS ALWAYS, WITH THIS BEING A COLLECTIVE EFFORT YOU TOO MUST DO SOME WORK TO ADAPT AND MAKE USE OF RESOURCES AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL. AS CONSTITUENTS YOU HOLD POWER AND KNOW THE NATIONAL CONTEXT BEST - MAKE USE OF IT NOW!

Let’s Workshop Red Lines Together Now!

1. Ambitious and numerical time bound targets are a must
1. Pledge to accelerate progress towards universal access to tuberculosis services in both high and low burden countries such that, by 2024, 100 per cent of people diagnosed with tuberculosis have access to WHO-recommended rapid molecular diagnostic tests and at least 40 million people with TB (equivalent to over 90 per cent of people with tuberculosis) are reached with quality assured treatment (including 1.7 million people with drug-resistant TB, 3.5 million children with TB, and 115,000 children with DR-TB) , and at least 35 million people (equivalent to more than 90 per cent of those eligible) of people at high-risk of developing tuberculosis with preventive treatment (including 21 million contacts of people with TB, 8 million under five contacts, and 6 million people living with HIV)
2. Adopt new tools at scale by 2024
3. Get the financing figures right
• With the aim of reaching overall global investments of at least 22 billion United States dollars a year by 2026 and 35 billion United States dollars a year by 2030
• Further commit to contributing fair share investments in TB research and development to support collective efforts to substantially increase financing for tuberculosis research and innovation to 5 billion United States dollars a year (NOW not by 2027)
4. Commit to a vaccine target of 2025 (not next 5 years)
• Commit to, by 2025, to develop and license safe, effective, and accessible vaccines to prevent tuberculosis infection and disease for all age groups,
5. Do not leave anyone behind - explicitly commit to and mention all KVPs, including ….
• Pregnancy/pregnant, lactating people and adolescents, miners, migrants, people who use drugs, etc… throughout document
6. Prioritize Community Rights and Gender and recognize community as equal partners
• Commit that by 2025 all high-burden countries fund, implement and monitor National Strategic Plans that include TB Community Rights and Gender (CRG) costed Action Plans developed based on CRG Assessments; real-time TB community-led monitoring of access to services, quality of services, stigma and other human rights-related barriers; and at least five TB key and vulnerable populations relevant to each country context that are prioritized, have size estimations completed, are included in TB surveillance and TB programming and provided with differentiated approaches to meet their needs
7. Do not regress from 2018 - for example on IP
• Commit to promoting access to affordable medicines, including generics, for scaling up access to affordable tuberculosis treatment, including the treatment of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, reaffirming the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), as amended, and also reaffirming the 2001 World Trade Organization Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, which recognizes that intellectual property rights should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of the right of Member States to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all, and notes the need for appropriate incentives in the development of new health products

Don’t hesitate to reach out!