Tools and Guidelines

The HIV/TB Gender Assessment Tool developed not only supports countries with the submissions of gender sensitive concept notes to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) but is intended to assist countries to assess their HIV and TB epidemic context and response from a gender perspective, helping them to make their responses gender sensitive and reduce the dual burden of HIV and TB infection. This tool does not replace the HIV Gender Assessment Tool instead it is intended to work in areas of HIV and TB co-infection as one assessment or can also be conducted for each disease. A gender assessment process, led by national stakeholders and partners, helps to identify gender-related barriers to services as well as specific needs of women, men, transgender people and key and vulnerable populations, in the context of HIV, TB or HIV/TB co-infection, in the process reinforcing political commitment and increasing civil society capacity, to better respond to these barriers and needs.

The scope of the WHO treatment guidelines for drug-resistant tuberculosis, 2016 update thus differed from the one that guided the previous update of the WHO policy recommendations on the programmatic management of drug-resistant TB in 2011. It did not cover aspects of policy guidance on the programmatic management of drug-resistant TB that were of lesser priority or for which no new evidence has emerged since the 2011 revision. These included questions relating to the use of rapid diagnostics for RR-TB, the monitoring of response to treatment, the duration of longer (“conventional”) MDR-TB regimens, the delay in starting antiretroviral therapy in MDR-TB patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and models of care. 

In October 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an interim policy guidance on the use of delamanid in the treatment of patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), a recommending that delamanid may be added to a WHO-recommended regimen in adult patients with pulmonary MDR-TB (conditional recommendation; very low confidence in estimates of effect), under five conditions: proper patient inclusion, adherence to the principles of designing a WHO-recommended MDR-TB regimen, close treatment monitoring, active pharmacovigilance and proper management of adverse drug reactions, and informed patient consent. This interim policy did not include children, because of the absence of data in this population. However, data describing safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics (PK) of delamanid in children with MDR-TB aged 6–17 years recently became available hence, WHO convened a Guideline Development Group (GDG) meeting on 29 June 2016 to review this evidence.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) End TB Strategy calls for the early diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) including universal drug-susceptibility testing (DST). A prerequisite for any national TB programme to reach this goal is a quality-assured laboratory network equipped with rapid diagnostics. This Framework of indicators and targets for laboratory strengthening under the End TB Strategy serves as a guide for all countries developing plans for laboratory strengthening during 2016–2025. The indicators measure programmes’ capacity to detect TB accurately and rapidly using new diagnostics (known as WHO-recommended rapid diagnostics, or WRDs), provide universal DST, and ensure the quality of testing.

The booklet has been designed to facilitate the work of Midwives (ANMs), Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and the Self-Help Groups (SHGs) members who are working as front-line workers in the area of reproductive health, nutrition, empowerment and poverty alleviation programmes. Though the booklet takes inspiration from various existing IEC materials, yet it provides a new insight into how HIV and AIDS impact women and their conditions. Consultations with different programme managers and civil society groups have helped in transforming the technical know-how into a simple step-by-step guide. The use of easy to understand language, interspersed with illustrations, enhances acceptability of messages and their use among women in villages.

HIV/AIDS is not a mere health issue as its occurrence is influenced by a number of socio-economic elements. Health interventions alone, therefore, cannot lead to prevention. HIV prevention requires a concerted collaborative effort from all departments, institutions or organizations in public life through their work and programmes. Mainstreaming approaches to HIV have increasingly gained ground with the realization that the non-health sector can play an important and meaningful role in reducing vulnerability to HIV and mitigating its impact on those infected and affected. Though HIV is preventable, currently there is no cure for it. It can be best described as “a manageable condition”. In this scenario, mainstreaming and partnership for risk reduction, social protection, access to service and stigma reduction, become key policy tools to help communities become resilient and cope better. This guide is part of effort to enhance participant’s understanding on issue of HIV and AIDS and strengthen institutional capacity to reduce vulnerability, integration of services and social protection for People Living with HIV and Most at risk population.

“Leave no one behind” is a core principle of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Equity, human rights and gender equality are central to all the goals, while SDG 3 calls for universal health coverage and health and well-being for all at all ages. To realize this inclusive vision, we have to ensure that everyone makes it on to the bus of the SDGs – by using new approaches and tools that help us identify, and then address, health inequity. The eight-step Innov8 review is undertaken in each country by a multidisciplinary national team. It identifies who is being missed by health programmes, the barriers they face and the reasons those barriers exist – including the social determinants of health. It recommends the monitoring activity, partnerships and coordinated intersectoral action needed to ensure that health programmes reach everyone, especially those who have been missed and overlooked in the past.

This is an updated version of the resource guide for men who have sex with men (MSM) developed by the the Sexual Health and Rights Programme (SHARP) in Africa, first published in October 2015. The resource guide aims to provide a quick reference on a wide range of topics relevant to rights-based, effective, sustainable and integrated community-led and public health responses to men who have sex with men (MSM). The resource guide has been developed through an extensive global literature review and an appraisal of available tools and resources on MSM in Africa and other regions where appropriate. The review and appraisal were guided by a list of critical topics and elements that the guide should contain. These were taken from available resources and discussed and agreed with SHARP partners. They were selected from other MSM community-led organisations and civil society organisations supporting MSM community action in Africa.

Today, there is a sizeable breadth of research on the role of men and boys, particularly in the arenas of violence, health, sexuality, and masculinities. This body of research and program evidence demonstrates that the meaningful participation of men and boys in support of gender equality, as well as in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), including safe motherhood and family planning, can lead to positive changes in their attitudes, perceptions, and behavior that benefit women and girls. In recent years, there has also been increasing recognition of the need to build program approaches and strategies to support the active participation of adolescent boys and young men that recognize the context-specific needs and vulnerabilities of boys and young men themselves and supports engaging men and boys as beneficiaries of and stakeholders in gender equality. This tool is a living document that provides guidance on good partnership practices that promote strong relationships between civil society organizations and government representatives on engaging men and boys in gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

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