Interventions encompassing community-led strategies for stimulating demand while simultaneously advancing human rights, equity, and quality of services within the national TB programs and where feasible the broader health systems and private sector with a focus on:

• Raising awareness and building capacity of communities to drive demand creation
• Developing community-led monitoring, training, advocacy and communication tools and networks that ensure appropriate and tailored materials for different stakeholders (i.e., communities, health providers, local governments, etc.) including translation.
• Conducting coordinated campaigns at global, regional, national, and subnational levels that promote uptake, access, and awareness of a comprehensive package of care
• Establishing greater accountability nationally based on WHO’s Multisectoral Accountability Framework and the commitments set forth in the UN HLM on Tuberculosis in 2023.
• Strengthening linkages and referral networks with other relevant programs and sectors to increase and maximize the reach of TB tools and services beyond national TB programs

• Interventions to support countries in implementing innovative and targeted strategies for enhancing quality of TB services and care, case-finding and/or resistance monitoring considering:
  • Sub-national tailoring of implementation across the public and private sectors with consideration of faster, sustainable scale-up
  • Approaches for diverse country contexts determining feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and willingness
  • Measures and policies to broaden access to lifesaving medicines, while safeguarding long-term efficacy of key TB medicines that could have implications for AMR more broadly

In general, commodity costs related to programmatic introduction should be covered, where possible, through routine country grants of the Global Fund, USAID, PEPFAR or domestic expenditures. Proposals should therefore clearly indicate how the proposed activities will integrate with existing programs and planned efforts to support a holistic approach.

[1] Pretomanid, combined with  bedaquiline, linezolid, and/or moxifloxacin

[2] WHO consolidated guidelines on tuberculosis. Module 4: treatment – drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment, 2022 update, 15 December 2022. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240063129

[3] https://endtb.org/clinical-trial

[4] WHO CALL TO ACTION: Shorter and more effective treatment for all people suffering from drug-resistant TB, 21 March 2023.

[5] Proposals do not need to address all the examples (bullets) listed under a particular area, and may include work not listed (i.e. the bullets are examples, but are not intended to be mandatory or limiting).

Unitaid considers working with communities a critical part of generating demand and strongly encourages adopting inclusive approaches, and the early and continued meaningful engagement of communities towards improving the lives and health of the most vulnerable people.

The role of affected communities and planned collaborations with other relevant groups including grassroots community organizations and Civil Society Organizations at all stages of a project/programme including ideation is essential, with this engagement a key determinant for success. Community-led approaches are important to consider and adequately fund and resource when designing, planning, implementing, and evaluating activities and programmes.

Unitaid sees value in proposals from South-based lead implementers with experience in leading the implementation of large-scale multi-country projects that support access to health products in LMICs. We also support the meaningful inclusion of South-based sub-implementers, where feasible and relevant, in proposed project implementation consortia. To be clear, Unitaid’s objective of progressively engaging an increased number of lead implementing partners from the global South does not preclude proposals that also include partners from the global North, where their role is deemed complementary and important for the success of the proposal. In all cases, we encourage coordination and collaboration across implementors and seek proposals with regional impact across key LMIC markets and a clear path to global impact.

Unitaid is committed to climate and environmental action in its investments and expect its partners to make similar commitments. Proposals should clearly indicate: (i) Efforts that will be made to minimize carbon emissions from project activities (mandatory); (ii) Potential opportunities to contribute to broader climate and/or environmental co-benefits, in synergy with core project objectives (optional). More detailed guidance and definitions are provided in the proposal template.

Proposals should be carefully targeted, reflecting focused interventions to address key challenges regarding prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of drug-resistant TB in LMICs and access to health products. Proposals are expected to target one or both of the specified areas of work listed above. Proposals may, but do not have to, cover all activities described within the area of work. Proposals should clearly indicate the level of effort and budget for each activity.

Proposals should demonstrate value for money and measurable impact. Proposals should also include analysis of pathways to impact, scalability, and sustainability of key interventions.

Areas out of scope for this Call include: product development, full-scale implementation, and/or delivery of products

Through this Call for Proposals, Unitaid aims to reduce DR-TB cases and deaths by effectively treating DR-TB disease and breaking the chain of transmission and in particular:

• To contribute to facilitating the implementation of the better shorter regimens for DR-TB in the context of a more comprehensive and supportive approach that will support sustained effectiveness of current tools while creating the environment for new tools;
• To generate demand and increase the accelerated adoption and use of these tools for DR-TB in LMICs;
• Generating real-world experience regarding optimal strategies and delivery models for implementation, case-finding and resistance monitoring

The objectives outlined above will lead to: (1) better health outcomes due to additional people being treated, or due to people receiving effective treatments (2) financial savings/efficiencies due to the availability and use of a quality-of-care approach, and (3) improved and more equitable access by making products available and/or affordable in LMICs. The goal is to enable widespread access to a holistic care package for DR-TB through scale-up by governments and partners, to contribute to the global health response to diseases that predominantly affect people in LMICs.