Thailand - Stop TB Partnership

participate in the preparation or review of government reports submitted to the WHO. There
is currently no mechanism for civil society groups to provide independent assessments or
recommendations during preparation of the Global Tuberculosis Control report on what could
be done to improve the effectiveness of TB policies and services.
While the WHO’s international case detection and treatment success targets are
seen as helpful in motivating governments to demonstrate progress from year to year, without
a transparent data collection and reporting system that allows for public review and
feedback there is a strong incentive for governments to report greater progress than is
actually being achieved. For example, a number of Brazilian officials and researchers have
asserted that data gathered for WHO reports are not widely available at the national level; 68
that Brazilian experts are unaware of the methodology by which data are collected; and
that there are significant discrepancies between the information reported to the WHO and
national data with regard to DOTS coverage in particular, creating an inaccurate picture of
the situation on the ground. 69 As long as governments see the Amsterdam Declaration and
other regional and international commitments as a useful way of attracting international
funding without incurring domestic responsibility, these commitments will not spur the
desired broad public mobilization that is widely acknowledged to be a prerequisite for an
effective, sustained TB control effort.
TB policymakers have noted the importance—and the absence—of a strong social
mobilization component in TB control efforts to date. 70 There have been some incipient
attempts to stimulate greater activity in this area. For example, in 2004 the Stop TB
Partnership formed the Advocacy, Communications and Social Mobilization Working Group.
The WHO Stop TB Department has begun to collect information on advocacy efforts in
high-burden countries and has promised to establish a working group that includes community
participation to develop indicators for more detailed reporting on communications
and social mobilization activities as well. The Stop TB Partnership has also welcomed several
community-led initiatives such as the creation of a community task force to ensure
representation of people living with HIV/AIDS and/or TB in all of its decision-making
structures. 71 In Round Five, the Global Fund awarded substantial grants to support TB advocacy,
communications, and social mobilization activities in a number of high-burden countries.
Perhaps most significantly, the new Global Plan to Stop TB (2006–2015), published in
March 2006, identifies the following as one of its six key elements: “Engage people with TB
and affected communities to demand, and contribute to, effective care, [involving] scaling
up community TB care, creating demand through context-specific advocacy, communication
and social mobilization; and supporting development of a patient’s charter for the tuberculosis
community.” 72 However, the promise of these nascent structures and declarations
of intent has yet to be fulfilled; the level of social mobilization around TB and community
participation in TB policymaking processes is still inadequate.
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TB POLICY IN THAILAND