| 18 Juillet 2014
16 JULY 2014¦ GENEVA - The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomes the decision by the Stop TB Partnership (STBP) Board to move its secretariat’s hosting and administrative arrangements, which have been provided by WHO since the partnership was founded in 2001, to the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). The move will occur early in 2015.
The move will not change the close and complementary collaboration and working relationship between WHO and the STBP as they fulfil their respective mandates. WHO will continue its leading role in the fight against tuberculosis, setting global policy and targets, leading work to establish norms and standards, monitoring burden and global response, and providing technical support to Member States. The Partnership will continue to lead the global advocacy effort to raise awareness, funding and action against TB, coordinating the efforts of its 1000 partner organizations.
WHO will remain a central partner and will continue to sit on the Partnership’s Coordinating Board and its Executive Committee. The Partnership will draw on WHO’s expertise, use its global data and information as the base for its own advocacy material and will coordinate its actions and initiatives closely with WHO.
The Coordinating Board of the Stop TB Partnership – also supported in its discussion by WHO – has found that now that the Partnership has matured and expanded, it will be better able to fulfil its mandate by purchasing administrative services from UNOPS - a specialized provider of such services. UNOPS is particularly well equipped to support the grant and procurement procedures required by the Global Drug Facility and TB REACH, two entities which form part of the Stop TB Partnership.
The Stop TB Partnership secretariat will remain in Geneva, but will relocate from WHO premises to offices subleased from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
