The new project aims to eliminate tuberculosis in Francophone Africa by 2035.
The Union launched the Contributing to the Elimination of Tuberculosis in Africa project (CETA), a new project aiming to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) in Francophone Africa by 2035, at a signing ceremony in Paris on 8 October. The project will support national tuberculosis programmes (NTPs) in eight countries with TB screening and prevention, improving healthcare delivery by better integrating it into the wider health system, and strengthening the governance of these NTPs.
The project builds on The Union’s many years of work supporting TB efforts in the eight countries covered: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, Central African Republic, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
CETA has three programmatic approaches, with a particular focus on improving access to care for vulnerable populations, such as people living with HIV or children.
The first approach aims to improve TB screening and prevention; using a new home-based survey to help with the early detection of active TB, allowing those diagnosed to be treated quickly, and anyone in close contact to be given preventive therapy to stop the spread of the disease.
The second will support NTPs to improve healthcare delivery by improving case management of multidrug-resistant TB, and better integrating TB into the county’s national health system, in order to reduce missed opportunities for TB diagnosis during unrelated health checks.
The third approach will strengthen the governance of the NTPs, by improving their capacity building skills and supporting them to manage financing from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
For each of these areas of focus, CETA will create a network of local experts who will support each other and have ongoing access to the expertise of The Union, through workshops, courses, conference and online resources.
The Union will provide ongoing monitoring of the project, including regular exchanges with national programme managers. This will include supporting these NTPs to expand the use of these activities in their future grants to the Global Fund.
This project is financed by an Agence Française De Développement (AFD) grant.