On 15 April W4GF organised this webinar together with the Stop TB Partnership and TB Women which was attended by 34 people.
The Clock is Ticking and time is running out for us to deliver on the commitments made by global leaders to end TB and gender inequality. The urgency is greater than ever due to the impacts of COVID-19, as lockdowns and service disruptions have reversed slow but steady progress in the global TB response, including diagnosis and enrolment for TB treatment.
The setbacks have put the world further off track to achieve the 2022 targets and commitments agreed at the 2020 United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on TB, which are important milestones in the agenda to end TB by 2030. The commitments include important pledges to address gender inequality and many of the distinct challenges faced by women and girls living with or at great risk for TB.
We can only end TB if health services are gender responsive and if they address barriers to enable women and girls, especially those who are vulnerable and in vulnerable situations, to access prevention, diagnosis and treatment services.
This webinar showed that gender is important in the TB reponse. A gender-based approach to TB addressed the social, legal, cultural and biological issues that underpin gender inequality and contribute to poor health outcomes. It encourages gender-responsive investments to prevent new cases of TB, and strengthen the response to fulfil the right to health of women and girls, men and boys in all their diversity.
In 2013 The Stop TB Partnership and UNAIDS developed the first ever gender assessment tool for national HIV and TB responses to support counties in Global Fund applications which was adapted from the UNAIDS HIV Gender Assessment Tool to include TB. In addition to this there is also the TB CRG Assessment that has been conducted in many countries. This webinar provided an update from the Stop TB Partnership on what has happened with the Gender Assessment Tool and these other important tools that exist that provide more integrated assessments that we should also be calling for in our counties. Presenters and their slides are available here:
- Turning the evidence into action: Priorities of TB Women: Cintia Dantas
- Building the evidence base: Stop TB Partnership: TB gender assessments: Caoimhe Smyth, CRG Advisor
- Global Fund Priorities: Hyeyoung Lim, Human Rights Advisor
To listen to the webinar recording click here