Community Engagement and Leadership in Pandemic Governance (CELG)

Community Engagement and Leadership in Pandemic Governance (CELG)

Content Outline

  • Why CELG ?
  • Objective of CELG
  • Target community, countries and partners
  • Findings from assessment
  • Key recommendations from assessments
  • Community Engagement plans (CELG)

Why CELG? – strengthening the voice, participation and influence of communities in TB and pandemic responses.

  • COVID19 impact varied across different population groups and underscored the criticality of integrating health equity, human rights and gender equality into HTM programs.
  • COVID19 Response Mechanism (C19RM) Surveys (2021 and 2022) showed lack of engagement of Last Mile Population/Key and Vulnerable Populations in the C19RM response, who experience increased vulnerabilities and risk.
  • The leadership and engagement of communities living with and most affected by diseases has been central to the Global Fund since its foundation and is reflected across the Global Fund’s model.

Objective of CELG

  • To identify and document engagement approaches and strategies that enable TB KVPs to influence national TB and pandemic decisions:
  • Access to technical, and financial support
  • Build the capacity of KVP on TB and COVID19
  • Embed lessons from COVID19 into national TB and pandemic responses

Findings from the Assessment

Factors that increased vulnerabilities highlighted in the assessments include

  • Living and working conditions,
  • High risk of infection,
  • Limited access to TB and COVID19 information and care
  • These vulnerabilities become limiting factors in the capacity for KVP to mobilise and engage.
  • There exist scarcity of existing data on TB prevalence or even general health risks among TB KVP as priority target community in public health care planning.
  • High levels of stigma and discrimination act as barrier to engagement in decision making

Key recommendations from the country assessments

  • Inclusive decision making processes;
  • Build capacity for both the LMPs and the local structures;
  • Access to information, tools and resources that increase awareness on TB and PPR;
  • Improved coordination and partnership structures to facilitate engagement; and
  • Data gathering on the broader community priorities to inform decision making.

Community Engagement Plans content

The CE plan activities centred around the following:

  • Information and knowledge sharing
  • Consultation
  • Collaboration
  • Empowerment/Capacity building
  • Participation
  • Community leadership