The Lancet Global Health: After the UNGA High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis — what next and how?
Suvanand Sahu, deputy executive director at the Stop TB Partnership; Lucica Ditiu, executive director at the Stop TB Partnership; and Alimuddin Zumla, professor at the Division of Infection and Immunity at the Center for Clinical Microbiology at University College London

“…Three critical components — funding, action, and accountability — will be pivotal to the success of the initiatives of the UNGA High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis [held last September]. First and foremost, is for U.N. member states to make available the resources needed. … Second, rapid action by countries, donors, and stakeholders is required for scaling up tuberculosis care and prevention as well as fast-tracking research into the development of new diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines. … Third, a specific independent monitoring and accountability mechanism was absent from the political declaration [agreed to at the high-level meeting] and is essential to hold world leaders, national governments, and stakeholders accountable to the commitments made. … The [political declaration on TB] calls for a progress report in 2020 and a comprehensive review by heads of state and governments at a high-level meeting in 2023. These will provide opportunities to hold world leaders accountable for contributing resources, progress, and successes and failures to meet targets. Close collaboration among all stakeholders, including governments of tuberculosis-endemic countries, specialized agencies of the U.N., U.N. regional commissions, the Stop TB Partnership, WHO, UNITAID, the Global Fund, tuberculosis advocates, researchers, community leaders, patient groups, donors, and grant-awarding bodies, will be essential to the implementation and achievement of the political declaration on tuberculosis, and to ending the tuberculosis epidemic” (3/12).