Guidance for national strategic planning for tuberculosis

Book excerpt: A national strategic plan (NSP) for TB is a key document that guides national authorities and stakeholders on how to comprehensively address the TB epidemic through interventions within the health and across other sectors. The NSP translates global, regional and national commitments into national and subnational targets and activities to be implemented to achieve these targets, and provides the basis for mobilizing domestic and external resources for the TB response. It outlines the overall goal(s), strategies and priority interventions, and provides guidance on how these are coordinated across sectors. This guidance is intended for use in developing standalone TB strategic plans, or TB interventions as part of multidisease or health sector plans. It describes key considerations and steps for strategic planning for TB in line with the World Health Organization’s End TB strategy, and the proposed structure of the NSP. The target audience of this publication are all stakeholders involved in national strategic planning for TB (e.g., ministry of health, other government ministries, private sector, civil society, affected communities, academic and research institutions, and technical and funding partners). The current document is an update to the 2015 Toolkit to develop a national strategic plan for TB prevention, care and control. It was developed to better align with global commitments and latest developments in TB and in public health, and builds on lessons learned from using the 2015 toolkit.