Management Sciences for Health Continues Global Fight Against Tuberculosis with Two New Programs

Arlington, VA—July 1, 2020—Management Sciences for Health (MSH) announced today that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded it two multiyear programs to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) in almost two dozen countries.

“We are thrilled to accelerate and expand our locally led efforts to end TB around the globe,” said Marian W. Wentworth, MSH’s President and CEO. “These awards recognize MSH’s record of results fighting the world’s leading infectious disease killer. With a presence in 19 of USAID’s 23 TB high-priority countries, we are starting activities rapidly and implementing many of them simultaneously.”

Health Systems for Tuberculosis (HS4TB)

Health Systems for Tuberculosis (HS4TB) is a five-year contract that will leverage MSH’s successful leadership development programs to improve local governance and management skills in a “TB Sector Transformation Program.” HS4TB will focus on health systems priorities that most directly support achievement of TB outcomes, with a focus on health financing and governance in 23 USAID priority countries. The project will help countries increase domestic financing, use key TB resources more efficiently, build in-country technical and managerial competence and leadership, and support policy formation and dissemination. HS4TB will also prepare local organizations to transition into the role of primary technical assistance providers and recipients of direct donor support and will engage marginalized groups, including women and youth, in co-creating activities with national TB programs, professional associations, civil society, and other stakeholders.

“This project will apply systems thinking to transform the way we see and understand TB control and elimination,” said MSH’s Dr. Ersin Topcuoglu, HS4TB project director. “This in turn will help leaders and managers design better systems to predict and react to the constant changing environment more effectively and efficiently.”

MSH will lead public financing expert Nathan Associates; women-owned small business Open Development, LLC; and local partners to assist governments and other TB actors in achieving and sustaining transformation.

USAID Eliminate TB Project 

The USAID Eliminate TB Project is a five-year project that will build on MSH’s contributions to Ethiopia’s TB control efforts for the past 15 years. That work has driven declines in TB incidence of some 8% per year—one of the best records among high-burden TB countries. With longtime collaborator KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation and three local partners, MSH will accelerate and sustain a decrease in TB incidence to achieve the World Health Organization’s End TB targets by 2035 and lay the groundwork to eliminate TB in Ethiopia by 2050.

The MSH team will support cost-effective strategies to rapidly boost the health care system in both the public and private sectors to increase access to early TB diagnosis and treatment and to alleviate unnecessary costs for patients. It will support the government of Ethiopia to target case detection based on prevalence, introduce highly sensitive and specific diagnostic and screening tools, and boost prevention and treatment for latent TB infection. The project will also emphasize country ownership and sustainability, working with the Ethiopian government to more effectively mobilize and use domestic resources and to implement, manage, and report on all programmatic activities. The project will also engage communities, civil society organizations, and other private partners at the local level in TB prevention and control.

About MSH’s TB work

For two decades, MSH has developed innovative strategies to bring diagnostic, preventive, and treatment services to people at high risk for TB, including children, displaced persons, and those living with HIV and diabetes. MSH’s approach focuses on strengthening health systems by building skills and sustainability, strengthening laboratory systems, ensuring continuous availability of medicines and supplies, integrating TB into HIV and other health services, and bolstering local leadership and management. Our work includes directly engaging communities and working with public- and private-sector partners while increasing political support for TB programs. MSH’s TB experts research and contribute to an ever-increasing body of knowledge on innovations and best practices to end TB. Read their published articles here.