On June 5, 2025, the Townhall “Sustaining the Momentum Towards Ending TB: Safeguarding the TB Response” took place, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) in close collaboration with the WHO Civil Society Task Force on TB (CSTF-TB).
This interactive meeting, opened by WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and moderated by CSTF-TB members Yuliia Kalancha and Helene-Mari van der Westhuizen, provided a platform for dialogue with civil society and communities on how to maintain momentum in the fight against TB and safeguard the gains achieved.
The active engagement of civil society organizations (CSOs) and communities helped shape the discussion with WHO and highlighted the real needs, innovations, and priorities of those on the frontlines of the TB response.
Ahead of the event, current and former CSTF-TB members held their annual meeting with the WHO Director-General to discuss the challenges arising from funding cuts and strategies to overcome them. In particular, Yuliia Kalancha stated: “Werepresent the voices of those most affected, of those who cannotspeak for themselves. Yet CSOs and comunities are beingpushed out of decision-making spaces, sidelined in fundingprocesses.
Until now, the European Union has remained one of the fewsustainable donors actively supporting the work of CSOs. However, the recent European Commission’s guidance onfunding for the development, implementation, monitoring andenforcement of EU law signals worrying trends. It introducesnew conditionalities and prioritizes “awareness-raising” overtrue advocacy, which risks reducing the role of civil society intopassive implementers, rather than agents of accountability andchange.
We are increasingly concerned by how funding is being used asa tool to influence the role of civil society. We witness requeststo remove the word “advocacy” from work plans and growingpressure on CSOs to shift from shaping policy to simplydisseminating information. This undermines the essence of civilsociety’s mission. At the same time, we observe how financialcontrol is being used to silence independent voices, with somegovernments labeling organizations as “foreign agents” orlimiting their access to public resources.”
The Executive Director of TB Europe Coalition also called on WHO to actively monitor the state of civic space in its engagement with Member States by collecting data on CSO involvement: “During National TB Programme reviews and NSP development processes, we ask WHO to systematically assess and recommend on civil societyinvolvement. Similarly, in Global Fund dialogues, WHO canhelp ensure that meaningful civil society participation is notoptional but expected and protected.”
