Jenniffer Dietrich is Technical Officer at the Challenge Facility for Civil Society of the Stop TB Partnership.

Communities are coming together to advocate and improve their own access to health services and increasingly organizing to plan and deliver effective healthcare on a large scale. Though it will never replace or match the national delivery of health, it can and does make a considerable contribution acting synergistically to improve access for marginalized groups, maintaining contact and referral to health services and ultimately creating a highly effective network of health interventions and community health systems.

The Stop TB Partnership’s Challenge Facility for Civil Society (CFCS) targets grass-roots and community-based civil society organizations that seek to help shape policy at local levels by giving a voice to people living with TB and those involved in its prevention, treatment and care. Proposals are selected by an independent selection committee composed of a maximum of 10 representatives from the community affected by TB, NGOs from developing and developed countries, NTP managers, multilateral or technical agencies.