A multisectoral response is critical for ending Tuberculosis and Non-communicable diseases, and is a crucial component of the UNGA high-level meeting political declarations on TB and on NCDs in 2018. This was also the crux of the recent Joint High-Level United Nations Mission on TB and NCDs to Nigeria which took place from 24th-28th February 2020.
The mission, which was led by the WHO Secretariat of the UN Interagency Task Force on NCDs and the WHO Global TB Programme, comprised 11 UN agencies in addition to WHO, including representatives from FAO, IAEA, IOM, OHCHR, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNODC, as well as the World Bank. The Mission also included observers from Public Health England, the African Development Bank and USAID. The mission aimed to advocate for whole-of-government and whole-of-society responses to both TB and NCDs; to catalyse an effective UN response to support the Government of Nigeria; and to identify synergies and co-benefits of aligning TB and NCD responses. Coming on the heels of the recent TB Programme Review, Mission delegates met with senior officials of relevant Federal ministries and the Senate, as well as the Governor of Kano State and Deputy Governor in Lagos and other officials, academia, civil society and representatives of the development sector.
During the mission, delegates were hosted by the First Lady of Nigeria and TB Ambassador and champion, represented by Her Excellency Oludolapo Osinbajo, wife of the Vice President of Nigeria, herself a TB champion, who demonstrated the power of cascade advocacy in a country where the First Ladies of the States have been nominated TB Champions. In a friendly kick-off, the Minister of State for Health, Osagie Emmanuel Ehanire launched the campaign to Kick TB out of Nigeria and inaugurated a new Technical Working Group for Non communicable diseases. The mission culminated in a debrief with the Minister of Health and his excellency the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.
Representatives from the high-level mission acknowledged the country’s efforts to revitalize primary health care and its ambitious targets in line with UN High-Level Meeting commitments. However the mission highlighted the need to dramatically increase and sustain domestic financing for primary health care and the disease priorities to address the enormous societal and economic burden of TB and NCDs; the need to scale-up access to diagnostics, treatment and prevention for TB and NCDs; to galvanize a multi-sectoral response to ensure whole-of-government and whole-of-society ownership and accountability; to organize campaigns beginning with the highest level of government to increase public and healthcare worker awareness; and to push for a human-rights-based and people-centred response that leaves no one behind.