Feature Courses
- Super User
Equitable STOP TB Partnership
We are writing this letter in response to recent allegations in the New York Times and other venues about operations at the Stop TB Partnership.
A Strong TB Partnership ...
A letter written in response to recent allegations in the New York Times and other venues about operations at the Stop TB Partnership.
"Over the last ten years, largely under the direction of Dr. Lucica Ditiu and Dr. Suvanand Sahu, this changed. Instead of a partnership focused on Geneva and transferring resources to the World Health Organization, the Stop TB Partnership built stronger linkages to civil society in the Global South and the Global East. "
As a group, we stand against structural racism and its corrosive effects on individuals and communities. In order to build a solidarity movement committed to eliminating tuberculosis, it is important the Partnership provides an environment—and supports a culture of care and growth—where all people feel welcome and are able to contribute to its mission. We were pained by the claim in the New York Times that the environment at the Stop TB Partnership may not reflect our shared expectations, and eagerly await the outcome of the Stop TB Partnership Board’s investigation into these allegations.
As we await the findings of the Board, we feel compelled to note that over the last ten years, we as partners have felt a positive change in the orientation of the Partnership towards communities living in poverty and people of color. Prior to 2010, the Partnership was largely seen as a Geneva-based organization that supported the status quo: a double standard in the way tuberculosis was treated in different settings. For many of us, this discrimination, though seemingly based on wealth, also tracked closely with national origin, race, and the legacy of colonialism. It was a form of systemic discrimination that should have never had any place in a global partnership. It perpetuated a colonial mentality towards countries and people who had already suffered greatly, and ultimately, led to limited gains in stopping tuberculosis in communities facing high rates of disease.
Over the last ten years, largely under the direction of Dr. Lucica Ditiu and Dr. Suvanand Sahu, this changed. Instead of a partnership focused on Geneva and transferring resources to the World Health Organization, the Stop TB Partnership built stronger linkages to civil society in the Global South and the Global East. They used the TB REACH mechanism and other instruments—some of which had started before they arrived, of course—to ensure that partners and communities had resources and assistance to innovate to stop tuberculosis. The leadership of the Partnership have acted despite great external pressure, personal and professional, to maintain the status quo.
Over these years, the team at the Stop TB Partnership has worked shoulder-to-shoulder with people in low- and middle-income countries—people of different races and nationalities, to be sure—to ensure that communities have the support they need to build comprehensive programs to eliminate tuberculosis. They have pushed their activities and engagements into high-tuberculosis-burden regions, and have encouraged South-South and East-East collaboration on a scale that was not seen before. Dr. Ditiu, Dr. Sahu, Dr. Creswell, and others at the Partnership, have always made themselves available (at even short notice) to assist local partners and communities wherever possible. The Stop TB Partnership developed and rolled out tools to assess legal barriers and gender-based/socioeconomic disparity as it related to tuberculosis testing and treatment, so that community activists and advocates could continuously assess and improve available services and policies. In our opinion, their acts of solidarity with affected people and communities have helped transform tuberculosis policies both locally and globally. They have demonstrated that health policies focused on national origin and the financial wealth of a community—factors that lie at the foundation of structural racism and double standards for communities living in poverty—have no place at the Stop TB Partnership. Our views echo those of our colleagues in the Africa Coalition on Tuberculosis (http://actafrique.org/pages/publications.php)
We urge the Board to thoroughly investigate the allegations raised in the New York Times and look forward to hearing its findings. This will be an important step in ensuring an environment where we all are able to work together in solidarity to eliminate tuberculosis.
Sincerely,
Note: Signatories with an asterisk beside their name are signing on behalf of themselves and their organizations.
Suraj Abdulkarim
SUFABEL Community Development Initiative
Nigeria
--
Oswaldo Adolfo Rada L.
Mecanismo social de apoyo y control en VIH – MSACV
Colombia
--
Jason Alacapa
Innovations for Community Health
Philippines
--
Efraín Soria Alba*
Fundación Ecuatoriana Equidad - Coordinador General
Ecuador
--
Alberto Nieves Alberti
ACCSI Acción Ciudadana Contra el SIDA
Venezuela
--
Georgina Gutiérrez Alvarado*
Movimiento Mexicano de Ciudadanía Positiva, A.C. - Presidenta
Movimiento Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Mujeres Positivas - Referente México
México
--
Ramya Ananthakrishnan
REACH
India
--
Victoria Ashirova
Ishonch va Hayot (Hope and Life)
Uzbekistan
--
Qadeer Baig
IRD
Global
--
Jude Beauchamp
Partners In Health
Liberia
--
Mercedes Becerra
Harvard Medical School
United States of America
--
Javier Hourcade Bellocq*
LAC Key Correspondent Team on HIV, TB and Malaria
Argentina
--
Stela Bivol*
Center for Health Policies and Studies
Moldova
--
Liliana Caraulan
Center for Health Policies and Studies (PAS Center)
Moldova
--
Edgar Valdez Carrizo*
Instituto para el Desarrollo Humano
Bolivia
--
Cristina Celan
Center for Health Policies and Studies (PAS Center)
Moldova
--
Igor Chilcevschii*
League of People Living with HIV
Moldova
--
Svetlana Ciobanu*
Step by Step South region
Moldova
--
Vera Ciuchitu*
Tighina Psychological Association
Moldova
--
Catalina Constantin*
Association for Supporting MDR-TB Patients
Romania
--
Letis Hernandez Cruz
ASONAPVSIDAH
Honduras
--
Pablo Cymerman*
Intercambios Asociación Civil
Argentina
--
Hayk Davtyan*
Tuberculosis Research and Prevention Center
Armenia
--
Mirta Ruiz Diaz*
Directora Ejecutiva ENLACE-CDH Secretaría Regional MLCM+
Paraguay
--
Helen Evans
The Nossal Institute for Global Health
University of Melbourne
Australia
--
Paul Farmer
Harvard Medical School
United States of America
--
Dana Farcasanu*
Center for Health Policies and Services
Romania
--
Lic. Kurt Frieder*
Fundación Huésped
Argentina
--
Dayra Garcia
Aaociacion Viviendo Positivamente
Panamá
--
Ali Habib
Interactive Health Solutions
Pakistan
--
Hamidah Hussain
IRD
Pakistan
--
Akhtar Hussain
Department of Health
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Pakistan
--
Ala Iatco*
Union for HIV Prevention and Harm Reduction
Moldova
--
Oxana Ibragimova*
Kazakhstan Union of People Living with HIV
Association of legal entities
Kazakhstan
--
Md Akramul Islam
BRAC
Bangladesh
--
Santiago Jaramillo
Presidente Ejecutivo Fundación Matices
Ecuador
--
Stephen John*
Janna Health Foundation
Nigeria
--
Yuliia Kalancha*
TB Europe Coalition
--
Salmaan Keshavjee
Center for Global Health Delivery
Harvard Medical School
United States of America
--
Aamir Khan
IRD Global
Singapore
--
Uzma Khan
IRD Global
Global
--
Saira Khowaja
IRD Global
Global
--
Andriy Klepikov*
Alliance for Public Health
Ukraine
--
Olha Klymenko*
TB people
Ukraine
--
Krishnan Krishnan
REACH
India
--
Natalia Kryshtafovich*
Defeat Tuberculosis Together
Belarus
--
Suchitra Kulkarni
Center for Global Health Delivery
Harvard Medical School
United States of America
--
Konstantine Labartkava*
Union "New Vector"
Georgia
--
Leonid Lecca
Socios En Salud
Peru
--
Evan Lee
Former PSC Representative on Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board
Switzerland
--
José Luis Fagin Legido
Mesa LGTBI
Central Nacional de Mujeres de Sectores Populares del Perú "Micaela Bastidas
Sede Lambayeque
Perú
--
Alma De León
Directora Regional/ITPC LATCA
Global
--
Diana Lobo
Liga Merideña contra el Sida
Colombia
--
Martha Miravete Cicero - Procuradora*
Presidenta de Grupo de Mujeres de la Argentina
Argentina
--
Nikoloz Mirzahvili*
Network TBpeople, EECA regional network
EECA Regional
--
Hector Monsalve
Asociación por la Vida (ASOVIDA)
Colombia
--
Willy Morales M.
Red Nacional de Pueblos Indígenas
En Respuesta al SIDA
RENPO Chile
Chile
--
Yana Morenetes
PACT
Ukraine
--
Elchin Mukhtarli*
Saglamliga Khidmat Public Union
Azerbaijan
--
Olive Mumba*
EANNASO
Tanzania
--
Safarali Naimov*
Stop TB Partnership
Tajikistan
--
Tom Nicholson*
Advance Access & Delivery
United Staes of America
--
Anna Nicholson
Doxastic
United States of America
--
Svetlana Nicolaescu
Center for Health Policies and Studies (PAS Center)
Moldova
--
Tatyana Nikitina*
Non-governmental non-profit organization Republican Information – Education Centre “INTILISH”,
Uzbekistan
--
Valentina Onica*
House of Hope
Moldova
--
Laura Ines Perez Ottonell
Red PVVS Uruguay
Consejo Consultivo hospital Español- Centro COVID Urugua
Uruguay
--
Iulian Petre*
The National Union of Organizations of People Affected by HIV/AIDS (UNOPA)
Romania
--
Ina Pusoi*
Health Development Center AFI
Moldova
--
Orlando Quintero
Fundacion Probidsida
Panama
--
Stefan Radut
Association for Supporting MDR-TB Patients
Romania
--
Toni Reis*
Aliança Nacional LGBTI+ y Grupo Dignidade
Brazil
--
Feodora Rodiucova*
Speranţa Terrei (Hope of Land)
Moldova
--
Rosa Mercedes Vásquez Rojas*
Central Nacional de Mujeres de Sectores Populares del Perú
Peru
--
Tapash Roy*
IRD Bangladesh
Bangladesh
--
Jorge Saavedra
Mexico
--
Francisco Rosas Sánchez
Vivir. Participación, Incidencia y Transparencia, A.C., Coordinador
Mexico
--
Ani Herna Sari
Perhimpunan Organisasi Pasien TB
Indonesia
--
Lilian Severin*
NGO "AFI"
Moldova
--
Karam Shah
Stop TB Pakistan, PATA
Pakistan
--
Natalya Shumskaya*
Public Foundation "AIDS Foundation East-West in the Kyrgyz Republic",
Kyrgyzstan
--
Anupama Srinivasan
REACH
India
--
Aaron Sunday*
African Network of Adolescents and Young Persons Development (ANAYD)
Global
--
Rosa Maria Herrera Torres*
Programa Jurisdiccional de Micobacteriosis
Mexico
--
Nina Tudoreanu*
NGO “For the Present & Future”
Moldova
--
Sergey Uchayev*
“Ishonch va Hayot” (Hope and Life)
Uzbekistan
--
Ludmila Untura*
“Credinta” (The Hope),
Moldova
--
Walter José Trejo Urquiola
Cátedra de la Paz /Universidad de Los Andes
Colombia
--
Victoria Ursachii*
Activists Alliance in support of patients with tuberculosis and HIV “Aktiv”
Moldova
--
Morosan Vitali*
“Medico-Social Programs”
Moldova
--
Luan Vo
Friends for International TB Relief
Vietnam
--
Ashvini Vyas
Ashakalp Healthcare Association
India
--
Garrett Wilkinson
Partners In Health
United States of America
--
Michael Wilson
Advance Access & Delivery
South Africa
--
Imran Zafar*
Community Health Solutions
Pakistan
--
Irina Zatusevschi
Center for Health Policies and Studies (PAS Center),
Moldova
NEW SIGNATURES:
Jade Tso
Advance Access & Delivery
United States of America
--
Emily Nicholson
United States of America
--
Nataliya Krishtafovich
Belarus
--
Alina Creata