Stop TB Partnership

The Stop TB Partnership was established in 2001 to eliminate tuberculosis as a public health problem. Its 2000 partner organizations include international, nongovernmental and governmental organizations and patient groups. The secretariat is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and, since 2015, has been administered by UNOPS. Previously it was hosted by the World Health Organization.

It is governed by a Board, supported by two standing board committees, the Executive Committee, and the Finance Committee. The current Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership is Dr. Lucica Ditiu. The STBP Board provides leadership and direction, ensures coordination within the Stop TB Partnership, and monitors the implementation of agreed policies, plans, and activities of the Secretariat.

History
The Stop TB Initiative was established following the meeting of the First Session of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Tuberculosis Epidemic held in London in March 1998. In March 2000 the Stop TB Partnership produced the Amsterdam Declaration to Stop TB, which called for action from ministerial delegations of 20 countries with the highest burden of TB. That same year the World Health Assembly endorsed the establishment of a Global Partnership to Stop TB.

Global Plan to End Tuberculosis
The Global Plan to End TB, 2023-2030 is a plan for ending TB as a public health challenge by 2030. It is produced by the Stop TB partnership and provides a blueprint of priority actions required and a detailed estimate of financial resources needed to end TB. This Global Plan builds on the previous edition, which laid out priority actions for 2018-2022, informed by global commitments member states endorsed at the 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on TB. The resource needs estimates from this Global Plan include resources needed for implementing TB care and prevention and R&D into new tools. This Global Plan has already informed the Global Fund Investment Case and the 2022 G20 deliberations on TB. It calls on funders to contribute $5 billion annually for TB R&D. In 2021, only $1 billion was raised.

Prior to this, five other plans were produced:

The first Global Plan to Stop TB 2001-2005 provided a coherent agenda to rally key new partners, push forward research and development, and have a rapid impact on TB in the areas suffering most from the epidemic It focused on the emerging challenge of rising drug resistance in TB and HIV infection.

The second Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015 was launched in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum. The total cost of the Plan - US$56 billion - represented a threefold increase in annual investment in TB control compared with the first Global Plan. The Plan set out to reduce TB incidence and reach the Partnership’s targets for 2015 of halving TB prevalence and deaths compared with 1990 levels.

The third Global Plan to Stop TB 2011-2015 focused on scaling up existing interventions for the diagnosis and treatment of TB and introducing new technologies and notably new diagnostic tests.

The fourth Global Plan to End TB 2016–2020 took the End TB Strategy as its foundation and provides countries and policymakers with a path towards achieving the Strategy’s milestones.

The fifth Global Plan to End TB 2018-2022 aligned with the Political Declaration of the UN High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on the Fight Against TB. It provided an estimate of the resources needed to achieve the targets and commitments set at the UNHLM on TB in September 2018 by the deadline of December 2022.

Main activities
The Partnership's activities focus chiefly on raising awareness about TB and advocating for greater commitment to and funding for TB prevention, treatment and research.

Global Drug Facility The Stop TB Partnership’s Global Drug Facility (GDF) has changed the landscape of TB care by working closely with countries, suppliers, donors, and other stakeholders to vastly increase global access to the latest quality-assured, affordable TB treatments and diagnostics for people affected by TB, whoever and wherever they are. GDF delivers a market solution to a market failure by offering affordable, life-saving TB medicines and diagnostic tools for countries that otherwise would not be able to access them and offering a financial return for drug and device developers that keeps them on the hunt for innovations.

TB REACH

The Stop TB Partnership TB Reach initiative is a multilateral funding mechanism that provides funding to partners to test innovative approaches and technologies to find and treat people with TB in the world’s most impoverished communities. TB REACH shows the importance of reaching people, whether with drones, donkeys, or young people on motorbikes, and whether using molecular tests, new drugs, or 125-year-old microscopy.

Challenge Facility for Civil Society The Stop TB Partnership Challenge Facility for Civil Society (CFCS), a grant mechanism supported by USAID, L'Initiative by Expertise France, and the Global Fund Strategic Initiative, empowers grassroots organizations and TB-affected communities often overlooked in the fight against tuberculosis. By funding innovative and technically sound interventions, the CFCS aims to elevate these vital groups to recognized partners in both national and global TB responses. This support enables community and civil society actors to engage in impactful advocacy, access essential services, and ensure governments uphold their commitments to the United Nations Political Declaration on TB. The ultimate goal is to foster robust networks within civil society and TB-affected communities that are accountable, supportive, and actively involved in shaping and enhancing TB eradication efforts, promoting human rights and gender equity along the way.

GiveWell review
Charity evaluator GiveWell first reviewed the Stop TB Partnership in July 2009. At the time, the Stop TB Partnership was given a 3 star rating, the highest possible. Until November 2011, the Stop TB Partnership was among GiveWell's top-rated charities, second only to VillageReach.

In November 2011, GiveWell published an updated review of Stop TB and concluded that "The Stop TB Partnership does not currently qualify for our highest ratings." They elaborated by saying that: "As of November 2011, we do not have a clear understanding of Stop TB's room for more funding. We have discussed this question with Stop TB and hope to improve our understanding of this in the future."

Employee treatment
On September 12, 2020, The New York Times published an article on the Stop TB Partnership titled "A Global Health Star Under Fire". The article states that "the leader of a global campaign to prevent tuberculosis has been accused of bullying and harassing employees, and creating a poisonous work environment especially for people of color, according to interviews with current and former staff members and internal documents obtained by The New York Times."

The Treatment Action Group released a statement condemning the reported bullying, harassment, and racism at the Stop TB Partnership and called on the Stop TB Partnership Board to commission an independent review into the allegations.