2023 UN High-Level Meeting on TB dates agreed and confirmed by Member States

On 24 February 2023, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly formally adopted the Modalities Resolution for the upcoming UN High-Level Meeting on TB (HLM on TB), which sets out the dates, agenda, logistics, and other critical details for the meeting.

Key highlights of the resolution include:

Date: Member states agreed the HLM on TB will take place on 22 September 2023 at UN Headquarters in New York during the UN General Assembly High-Level Week, and that the UN Multi-stakeholder hearing on TB would take place no later than June 2023. Click here to read the full news.

The decision is applauded by the TB community and follows the 16 February letter (available here) sent to the President of the General Assembly signed by 1044 TB champions from 650 organizations in 91 countries that called for the HLM on TB to be held on 22 September 2023.

Meeting theme: “Advancing science, finance and innovation, and their benefits, to urgently end the global tuberculosis epidemic, in particular, by ensuring equitable access to prevention, testing, treatment and care.”

Level of participation: The resolution encourages "all Member States and members of the United Nations specialized agencies to participate in the high-level meeting, including the multi-stakeholder panels, at the highest possible level, preferably at the level of Heads of State and Government, and invites all observers of the General Assembly to be represented at the highest possible level."

Meeting outcomes: The resolution "further decides that the high-level meeting shall approve a concise and action-oriented political declaration, agreed in advance by consensus through intergovernmental negotiations, to be submitted by the President of the General Assembly for adoption by the Assembly."

Meeting agenda:

Opening segment: To be held from 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., will feature statements by the President of the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session, the Secretary-General, the President of ECOSOC, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, the Chair of the Stop TB Partnership, an eminent high-level champion of the fight against tuberculosis, as well as a person affected by tuberculosis, selected in consultation with Member States, by the President of the General Assembly, giving due consideration to gender balance;

Plenary segment: To be held from 10.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., will comprise statements by Member States and members of the United Nations specialized agencies, and the time limits for these statements will be three minutes for individual delegations and five minutes for statements made on behalf of a group of States; (d)

Multi-stakeholder panels: Two multi-stakeholder panels will be held in parallel to the plenary segment, one from 11.00 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the other from 3 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. The multi-stakeholder panels will address the following themes:

• Panel 1: Accelerating multi-sectoral actions to ensure equitable high-quality people-centered tuberculosis care, and addressing determinants of tuberculosis in the context of universal health coverage;
• Panel 2: Scaling up adequate and sustainable national, regional, and international financing to ensure equity in tuberculosis service delivery, and innovative strategies, as well as for the research and development of new diagnostics, vaccines and medicines;

Closing segment: To be held from 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., will comprise summaries of the multistakeholder panels and concluding remarks by the President of the General Assembly and a statement by a person affected by tuberculosis, selected in consultation with the Member States by the President of the General Assembly, giving due consideration to gender balance;

Multi-stakeholder hearing on TB: The resolution requests "the President of the General Assembly, with the support of the World Health Organization and the Stop TB Partnership, hosted by the United Nations Office for Project Services and other relevant partners, to convene and preside over an interactive multi-stakeholder hearing, no later than June 2023, with the active participation of appropriate senior-level representatives of Member States and members of UN specialized agencies, observers of the General Assembly, parliamentarians, representatives of local government, relevant United Nations entities, major global health donors for tuberculosis, nongovernmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, invited civil society organizations, academia, medical associations and the private sector, as well as populations and communities vulnerable to TB, representative organizations of people living with, at risk of, and affected by TB and HIV coinfection, people affected by tuberculosis and broader communities, ensuring the participation and voices of women, girls and Indigenous Peoples as part of the preparatory process for the high-level meeting, and also requests the President to prepare a summary of the hearing prior to the high-level meeting,"

Civil society and non-governmental participation: The resolution invites "non-governmental organizations with relevant expertise that are in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council to register with the Secretariat to attend the high-level meeting and participate in the multi-stakeholder panels and the interactive multi-stakeholder hearing."

The resolution also requests "the President of the General Assembly to draw up a list of representatives of other relevant non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, academic institutions and the private sector, who may participate in the high-level meeting."

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The Stop TB Partnership would like to thank the HLM on TB co-facilitators, H.E. Mr. Bakhtiyor Ibragimov, Permanent Representative of the Uzbekistan Mission to the UN, and H.E. Mr. Krzysztof Szczerski, Permanent Representative of Poland Mission to the UN, for their impressive leadership in overseeing this resolution and for considering the TB community's priorities in its development.

The Stop TB Partnership makes a call to all partners, colleagues, and friends engaged in the TB response to remain united in the collective efforts for a successful meeting in September 2023. We can now turn towards the next stage of the process - ensuring that Heads of State agree to an ambitious Political Declaration with measurable, time-bound commitments, backed up by the funding needed to ensure the world gets back on track to end TB by 2030.

Source: Stop TB Partnership