Cotonou TB Declaration: Workshop to share best practices and lessons learned in tuberculosis case finding and treatment in Western and Central Africa, 26 - 28 March 2018

COTONOU TB DECLARATION 26 - 28 March 2018 Workshop to share best practices and lessons learned in tuberculosis case finding and treatment in Western and Central Africa © Bureau régional de l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé pour l’Afrique, 2018 Certains droits réservés. La présente publication est disponible sous la licence CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO NB : le lien vers la licence en langue française est https://creativecommons.org/li- censes/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo/deed.fr © World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, 2018 Some rights reserved. This work is available under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. Preamble We note with concern that every year, the Western and Central Africa (WCA) Region is missing more than 50% of TB cases. Among children, three quarter of cases are missed. The estimated mortality in TB/HIV co-infected patients in WCA region is 50% higher than in the rest of Africa. Our national programs are currently diagnosing and treating only 20% of the patients suffering from DR-TB. We, the National TB Programs of WCA region*, having come together with partners at the Regional Workshop in Benin, reaffirm our commitment to end TB as declared in the Sustainable Development Goals and require absolute commitment from our Governments. We recognize that 2018 is a historical moment in the fight against TB, with the upcoming UN General Assembly (UNGA) High Level Meeting on TB in September. We call on our Governments and stakeholders for a multi-sectoral response against TB and provide the needed political and operational leadership to end the TB epidemic and we affirm to do the following: Reduce the proportion of missing TB cases by 50% by 2020 for DS and DR-TB Reduce the TB/HIV mortality by half by 2020 * The West and Central African countries present at the workshop: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. Accelerate childhood TB interventions including preventive treatment, case finding, and treatment by at least 50% by 2020 Strengthen systematic use of implementation re- search to generate locally relevant evidence-based data for innovative interventions and scale up Strengthen strategic partnerships with community and civil society to foster integrated, community-led, people-centered, rights-based and gender- transformative approaches to the TB response Ensure adequate financing for TB, including following through on existing domestic government commitments to support essential TB drugs, human resources and services Strengthen partnerships among stakeholders for elimination of TB, including accountability for the outcomes of this declaration at national, regional and global levels