On February 25, 2026, a webinar dedicated to the WHO Regional Office for Europe indicators on civil society and community engagement in the TB response was held. The event was organized by the TB Europe Coalition within the framework of the COMBAT DR-TB project, funded by Unitaid.
The webinar brought together more than fifty participants and addressed the following key topics:
· Why National TB Programmes (NTPs) should measure the contribution of civil society organizations (CSOs) and communities to the TB response, and what programmatic and policy decisions improved data collection can support;
· What the four WHO Europe indicators on civil society and community engagement are, and how they can be integrated into routine TB monitoring systems without creating parallel reporting structures;
· How data can be used to strengthen partnerships between NTPs and CSOs/communities and expand meaningful civil society engagement;
· What the first key steps for country-level implementation are, what considerations are essential, and how potential risks can be mitigated.
Participants learned how these four indicators contribute to strengthening multisectoral collaboration within national TB responses from Dr. Giorgi Kuchukhidze, Epidemiologist, Joint Infectious Diseases Unit (JID), Division of Communicable Diseases, Environment and Health, WHO Regional Office for Europe.
During the session “Country-Level Experience in Integrating WHO Europe Indicators on Civil Society and Community Engagement into Routine Monitoring Systems”, participants gained practical insights from three countries in the WHO European Region, presented from both NTP and civil society perspectives. We sincerely thank our distinguished speakers for their valuable and insightful contributions:
· Dr. Valentina Vilc, National TB Programme (NTP), Moldova;
· Oxana Ruscineanu, SMIT, Moldova;
· Dr. Gulmira Kalmambetova, Deputy Head of the National TB Programme, Kyrgyzstan;
· Nataliya Shumskaya, Den Sooluk Nuru, Kyrgyzstan;
· Dr. Oktam Bobokhodjaiev, Chief Phthisiatrician of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population and former Director of the National TB Programme, Tajikistan.
If you were unable to attend the webinar, the recordings are available:
Ø English version: https://youtu.be/K7FmEoVcXk4
Ø Russian version: https://youtu.be/pGclfbyFLEU
We also invite you to review the methodological resources designed to support the organization of data collection and integration of the WHO Europe indicators on civil society and community engagement into national monitoring systems:
- Data Collection Algorithm for the Four Indicators of the WHO Regional Office for Europe - https://tbcoalition.eu/resource/files/2024/04/data_collection_algorithm_eng.pdf
- Guidance on Data Collection for the Calculation of the Four Indicators of the WHO Regional Office for Europe - https://tbcoalition.eu/resource/files/2024/01/cso_collecting_data_en.pdf
We sincerely thank all speakers for their time, expertise, and valuable insights, and express our appreciation to all participants for their strong interest in advancing partnerships and strengthening civil society engagement in the TB response.
