PARTNERSHIP AS A VERITABLE TOOL TO ADDRESSING TB CONTROL CHALLENGES IN NIGERIA

•H.I. Adamu 1 J. M. Kabir2, A.O. Awe1, L. Lawson4, O. Idigbe2 S. Labaran2 B.G. Adam3 , and T. Nwosu3

1 World Health Organization (WH0), Nigeria 2National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP)

3Nigeria Stop TB Partnership (NSTBP)4Zankli Medical Centre, Abuja, Nigeria

*Corresponding Author: E-mail hadamu2002@yahoo.com

1. Background Nigeria has the highest tuberculosis (TB) burden in Africa and is 4th among the 22 TB high burden countries globally (2010

Global TB report). Although the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy control programme (NTBLCP) aims at detecting 70% of these cases and cure 85% of them, only about a third are being detected annually.

2. AimThe aim of this study is to demonstrate how a partnership can be of concrete help to the national programme.

5. Lessons learnt The NTBLCP has the ownership of the programme and partners, who decide to buy into one national TB control plan, work together to contribute to the achievements of the TB control goals in the country.

Acknowledgement : We are grateful to the following organizations for their contributions to the partnering process in Nigeria1. The Stop TB partnership secretariat , Geneva2. All the constituent partners of the Nigeria stop TB partnership 3. The Zankli Meical Centre, Abuja.4. The WHO Zonal NPOs for the 6 Zones in Nigeria.5. The TB CSO Coalition, Nigeria

3. MethodsThe Nigeria Stop TB partnership (NSTBP) was launched in April 2009 to support the NTBLCP address low TB case detection and several other challenges. Following its take off, the NSTBP did a mapping of partners working in TB control in the country together with the TB services they provide. Based on their core competencies, each partner took responsibility for the implementation of activities from the National TB plan. Examples of these include identification and referral of TB suspects from the communities, conducting advocacy visits, training of health workers on IPC and counseling skills, training of treatment supporters and community volunteers etc.

4. Results The NSTBP has become a platform where partners cametogether and started implementing activities from the NationalTB plan. This has undoubtedly addressed the much neededco-ordination of partner activities as well as provided anopportunity to measure the contribution of these activities(using the National M & E system) to the overall nationalprogramme targets.

6. Conclusion Partnerships could be veritable tools to help the NTBLCPaddress key challenges of the programme.

Advocacy visit to a community leader by Partners on TB control Community mobilization in TB control by a Partner

TB community dialogue and consensus meeting facilitated by a Partner Training of community volunteers by a Partner on TB suspect and refer