February 11, 2022 (NAIROBI, Kenya): The three-day Joint Annual Review Meeting of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)-Global Fund Tuberculosis Programme for 2021 closed today in Nairobi.
The Joint Review brought together participants from the Ministries of Health, the Country Coordination Mechanisms for Global Fund supported grants against HIV/Aids, TB & Malaria, the National Refugee Commissions of IGAD Member States as well as representatives from the grant’s sub-recipients: UNHCR, Kenya Red Cross and the Ethiopian Refugees and Returnees Service.
As the Director of Health and Social Development underscored, Ms Fathia Alwan, in her remarks at the opening session on the meeting, “the grant is supporting community-based TB case finding, capacity in diagnosis of TB and Multi Drug Resistance–TB and treatment service as well as provision of integrated TB-HIV services in 54 refugee camps in the region”. She recalled that a Continuation Request on TB interventions among refugee camps in Eastern Africa for April 2022-March 2025 was developed and submitted to the Global Fund in August 2021.
During the three days, the participants reviewed the programme implementation status and achievements in 2021, exchanged good practices and lessons learnt on the regional grant and cross border collaboration on TB, and also provided orientation on the Continuation Request of the Regional TB Grant (including scope, objectives, interventions, work plan-budget and performance framework and overall required Sub Recipients preparation).
At the end of the meeting:
- The performance report 2021 of the regional grant was endorsed after it was agreed upon that the grant performance had met the expectations;
- The Sub Recipients adjusted the last Quarter Plan (January – March 2022);
- Results of the TB Study conducted in refugee camps in 2019-20 was disseminated; and
- A common understanding on the objectives, targets and implementation approach of the Continuation Request and COVID-19 Response Mechanism was reached.
The Joint Review Meeting was preceded by a two-day gathering of the regional committee in charge of the oversight of the country level Country Coordination Mechanisms dealing with the Global Fund Grant against HIV/Aids, TB and Malaria. The Regional Oversight Committee had finalised and endorsed their ToR, and agreed on Uganda as Chair and Djibouti as Co-chair of the Committee for 2022.
Background
Since 2016, IGAD has been engaged in implementation of Global Fund supported HIV and TB grants for refugee camps and cross border areas along with UNHCR, Refugee and Returnee Service of Ethiopia, Kenya Red Cross Society and National TB programmes of member states. The first HIV and TB grant was successfully implemented in 43 refugee camps and settlements. This has helped to improve service availability and utilisation and generate evidences on HIV Prevalence, TB case notification and treatment outcome trends in the refuge settings.
In 2018, IGAD together with stakeholders developed and submitted proposal on TB interventions among refugees in Eastern Africa. The application was successful and IGAD was granted US$ 7.5 million for three years with an effective date of first April 2019. The second grant focuses on strengthening the TB and Multi Drug Resistance-TB diagnosis and treatment, and cross border collaboration.
