12 Jul The Strategic Initiative ramps up Community Rights and Gender (CRG) investments for miners in Southern Africa
[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_separator type=”normal” thickness=”2″ up=”20″ down=”20″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]This quarter, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) extended an invitation to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional TB in the Mining Industry (TIMS) Programme Regional Coordinating Mechanism (RCM), to apply for the approved multi-country TB priority funding for the next three years. The main purpose of this catalytic funding is to strengthen coordination of TB Care and Prevention in the mining sector in Southern Africa. The programmatic remit has been expanded from 10 countries, to all 16 SADC member states.
STOP TB Partnership’s Strategic Initiative has been engaged in all phases of the TIMS programme, and has heralded a paradigm shift in promoting the rights of miners (in all their diversity), thereby scaling up programmatic interventions to address the human rights and gender barriers pervasive in the extractive industry. This work has strengthened the coordination efforts to find, test and treat miners and their communities, through intra-regional referral systems.
TIMS Phase III funding request development commenced in June 2020. STOP TB Partnership’s Dr Thandi Katlholo is guiding the development of the CRG component under the Human Rights and Gender module while Stop TB Partnership CRG Roster consultant Lynette Mabote is providing direct Technical Assistance.
During the lockdown, numerous stakeholder consultation processes have commenced virtually, including engagement of the six newly added member states, their National TB Programmes and other government stakeholders. The leadership of the SADC Secretariat, as a convening body, is observed during these processes. This progress is an encouraging sign that the programme will receive the much-needed support and sustained national ownership by member states, who signed the Declaration to end TB in the Mining Industry in 2012.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]