Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Civil Society (CSOs) members expressed their interest to integrate Tuberculosis (TB) in their respective program areas to contribute to the fight against Tuberculosis and contribute to the reduction of incidence, prevalence and death related to TB. This was during a one-day sensitization workshop on the ENGAGE-TBapproach held on 27 August 2015 in Adama, bringing together 30 participants from NGOs and CSOs working in different programmatic areas, including HIV/AIDS, Maternal Health, Child Health and other community-based programs.

The workshop, jointly organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Consortium of Christian Relief and Development Associations (CCRDA), aimed to update participants on the global and national burden of TB, and introduce them to the new WHO ENGACE-TB guidance for countries. The ENGAGE-TB facilitates the engagement of NGOs and other CSOs in integrating TB with existing community-based activities.

Ms Etsegnet Getachew, National TB/Leprosy Program Officer at the Ministry of Health said that the government has already put in place a policy framework for TB prevention, treatment and care, and that it is now adopting a new national operational guidance on ENAGAGE-TB that will create an enabling environment for all NGOs/CSOs to work together and better address the set targets on TB prevention, treatment and care. 

Dr Ismael Hassen, TB/HIV Program Officer at the WHO Ethiopia Country Office, underscored that NGOs and CSOs have a big role to play in the fight against TB because they are working closely with the community, are familiar with the culture, language and norms of the community and are well-placed to reach those remote communities with no access to health services.

Since 2012, some NGOs and CSOs have been already integrating TB into their existing programs like Malaria, Maternal and Child Health, HIV/AIDS and community-based cancer screening programmes in Afar, Oromia and Somali regional states as per the WHO ENGAGE-TB Approach, and have achieved remarkable achievements. Some of these implementing partners have also started scaling up implementations to other areas. 

In 2013, an estimated 9 million people around the world became ill with tuberculosis (TB), and 1.5 million died from it. TB is one of the top four killer diseases following diarrheal diseases, lower respiratory tract infection, and HIVIDS. An estimated one third of cases of TB are still either not diagnosed or not reported. In Ethiopia, 1.6% of new cases and 11.8% of total cases have drug resistant TB.

Reaching missed TB cases, addressing drug resistant TB, accelerating response to TB/HIV, intensifying research, ensuring rapid uptake of innovations and increased financing to close resource gaps are the top priority actions set by the Ministry of Health for 2015.

The World Health Organization's End TB Strategy includes the engagement of communities and civil society organizations as one of its core components and principles; the ENGAGE-TB Approach facilitates this. ENGAGE-TB is a good platform for NGOs, CSOs and other stakeholders to engage in community TB prevention, treatment and care activities by integrating TB into the existing community-based interventions and hence can contribute to the efforts to end the TB epidemic.

For more information, please contact

Technical Contact: Dr Ismael Hassen Endris; email:  endrisi [at] who.int

Communication Contact: Biniyam Wubshet Fisseha; email:  fissehab [at] who.int