Union Conference

Members of RESULTS International (Australia) have just returned from the 43rd World Conference of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (the Union), hosted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was an action packed week filled with technical briefings, planning for the future fight against TB, collaborative meetings and advocacy workshops. The resounding message from the week, looking forward to the post-Millennium Development Goal era, was for bold policies and ambitious targets.

The Union conference, held annually, is the peak global event for people working in lung health and tuberculosis (TB), and brings together hundreds of participants from more than 120 countries. Participants range from academics and researchers, civil society advocates and affected community representatives to members of governments, NGOs and policy makers.

The heart of advocacy activities at the conference was the Advocacy Corner, jointly hosted by Action.org, the Stop TB Partnership and TB Alert. The Corner provided a space for civil society advocates to meet, share ideas and knowledge, and to strategize and coordinate actions. Additionally, the Advocacy Corner was the location of a number of workshops and presentations, such as an Action hosted workshop aimed at researchers, providing information on how they can utilise advocacy in and alongside their work.

The outstanding event of the conference was the first ever civil society protest to occur at a Union conference. Frustrated by the unambitious targets for reducing TB, lack of commitment for funding targets, and with the stigmatising language frequently used in reference to persons with TB, more than 100 activists marched through the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, landing at the opening ceremony. 

The group carried signs of protest, such as ‘50% won’t cut it’, condemning the current aim to cut TB deaths by 50% by 2025, noting that this target will result in more than 600 000 people still dying each year, and ‘nothing for us without us’, in reference to the need to more effectively engage civil society in discussions and planning. Other signs included words crossed out in red, like ‘suspect’ and ‘defaulter’, condemning the language commonly used to describe persons thought to have TB and persons with TB who don’t finish the full regimen of treatment, respectively. Throughout the crowd were signs of ‘zero’, calling for an ambitious target to stop entirely this curable disease.

The crowd of activists, made up of people from dozens of countries from around the world `chanted, sang, stomped their feet and danced, and brought a much needed energy to the conference, revitalising the conversation at a crucial time, when planning is under way for the targets that will replace the MDGs in 2015. 

The week of activities culminated in the presentation at the closing ceremony of the first ever civil society Declaration on TB. The Kuala Lumpur Declaration on Tuberculosis spells out the aspirations that informed the week’s advocacy activities and the principles and demands that will guide TB advocacy efforts into the future. 

To read the declaration, click here: 

To add your signature to the declaration email KLZerodeclaration@gmail.com with your name, organizational affiliation (if any), city and country of residence and email address.