Since 2013, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided funding through the Global Fund Tuberculosis In-Country Advisors Project to embed senior advisors in national tuberculosis control programs (NTPs) in USAID’s tuberculosis (TB) priority countries. The goals of the project are to improve the grant implementation of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GF) and to strengthen NTPs’ capacity to meet global targets in TB elimination, particularly those related to multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), but also expanded to other technical areas according to the needs of each country.
The GF TB Advisor Project grew from the first advisor placed in the Philippines in 2013 to include advisors in 16 countries at present, with several other countries gaining or losing advisors over time. Advisors are now working in the following countries: Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mozambique, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Zambia. These advisors have been hired through the TREAT-TB mechanism led by Vital Strategies, with an overall operational period of 2008–21 and total obligations of $119,960,157.
