Your Excellency, Mr Zahid Maleque, Hon’ble Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Bangladesh; Your Excellency, Lyonpo Dechen Wangmo, Hon’ble Minister of Health, Bhutan; Your Excellency, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Hon’ble Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, India; Your Excellency, Ms Safiyya Mohamed Saeed, Hon’ble Deputy Health Minister, Maldives; Your Excellency, Mr Mohan Bahadur Basnet, Hon’ble Minister of Health and Population, Nepal; Your Excellency, Mr. Keheliya Rambukwella, Hon’ble Minister of Health, Sri Lanka; Director General, WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; Regional Director, WHO Europe, Dr Hans Henri Kluge; Representatives of our partners at Global Fund, USAID, World Bank, US CDC, FIND, Gates Foundation, PATH and The Union, among others; and of course, representatives of the WHO Civil Society Task Force,
Good morning and welcome to this high-level meeting to end TB in the South-East Asia Region, which we embark on just one month prior to the second UN High-level Meeting on TB – a tremendous opportunity.
I express my sincere gratitude for your presence, dear Excellencies, partners, donors and friends, and my utmost thanks to civil society and community representatives, who are not simply the heart, but the voice of our TB response.
Today, we choose courage, hope, unity and action.
We renew a bold yet attainable vision: A South-East Asia Region where TB is no longer a public health problem, menacing millions of people with disease and death, poverty and despair.
And we take not one or two, but several steps forward in a journey that began in 2017, when Excellencies and I made ending TB our eighth Regional Flagship Priority; and which was renewed in 2021, when high-level leaders unanimously adopted a new Regional Strategic Plan towards ending TB.
At the first UN High-level Meeting (UNHLM) on TB, in 2018, Indian TB survivor Nandita Venkatesan made a simple yet urgent plea:
For political leaders, policy makers, donors and all other TB stakeholders globally to act now, without delay.
That urgency was embedded in the resulting UN Political Declaration on the Fight against TB, which identified a series of global targets:
By 2022, to successfully treat at least 40 million people with TB, including 3.5 million children, and 1.5 million people with drug-resistant TB. At least 30 million people were to be put on TB preventive treatment.
By 2021, the South-East Asia Region had achieved 67% of its apportioned target for treatment overall, 56% of its apportioned target for treatment of children, 50% of its apportioned target for treatment of drug-resistant TB, and just 20% of its target for TB preventive treatment coverage.
However, as a Region, on three of the four UNHLM targets, we outperformed the global average.
Notably, we expect the latest data – which will be released next month – to highlight significant Region-wide advances, with several high-TB burden countries expected to have initiated more people on treatment in 2022 than in 2019.
In other words, together we are bending the curve, and must now accelerate momentum, shaping history to our will.
For that, in the lead up to the second UNHLM, I have four requests.
First, that at this meeting and beyond, we cultivate the highest level of political and operational commitment.
Commitment not at one level or in one sector. But at all levels and in all sectors.
Specifically, I urge leaders from each country to establish a high-level multisectoral commission on TB, which could also help build health systems resilience and advance universal health coverage and health security.
Second, we must actively accelerate access to new TB tools, technologies and treatment regimens that are people-centred, and which are delivered at the primary health care level, within the community.
For this, I urge you to share experiences and lessons learned, and agree on concrete measures to strengthen south-south collaboration, with a focus on facilitating affordable national procurement.
Third, let us allocate adequate and sustainable domestic resources to meet TB service coverage targets, building on the substantial increases already achieved.
In 2022, TB allocations in the Region reached US$ 1.4 billion, of which 60% was from domestic sources. However, for mission success, we need at least US$ 3 billion annually, which will also help maintain key social protection programmes, such as for nutritional support.
Fourth, we must continue to engage and empower TB-affected communities, not just listening to but truly hearing them.
On this, let us agree: In 2018, at the first UNHLM, action was needed, without delay.
Today, it is needed more urgent than ever.
Together, let us seize the moment; together, let us end TB.
I once again thank you for your participation and wish you all success.
Thank you.