Gaborone, Botswana – Following the successful launch of the Southern Africa Tuberculosis and Health Systems Support Project (SATBHSSP) in December 2016, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat and the project implementing partners, NEPAD Agency, East Central and Southern Africa Health community (ECSA-HC) and World Bank (WB) held interactive discussions on the regional implementation approach of the project. The discussions focussed on ensuring alignment of project implementation with the achievement of goals and targets set out in the SADC Protocol on Health.
During this experts interactive discussion, areas of collaboration were identified and agreed upon to ensure successful implementation of the SATBHSSP at the regional level. The project is implemented in four SADC Member States (Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia) with spill-over effects at regional level. The regional approach will ensure tackling TB as a regional public health challenge affecting vulnerable populations including miners and mining communities, transport corridors, labour sending areas, correctional facilities, migrant populations and cross-border areas.
The aims of the project is to strengthen the health sector’s response to TB and occupational lung diseases in the participating countries and strengthening regional capacity to manage the burden of TB and occupational lung diseases. SADC Secretariat received an update and briefing on the project and the experts discussed technical and policy support required from the SADC Secretariat to make the implementation of the SATBHSSP a success.
The meeting took place at the SADC Secretariat Headquarters from 20 – 21 March 2017.
