In Malawi, over the years, there has been a call for increased political commitment towards the fight against TB. This is against the discovery that there is a need to define and consider all the necessary and sufficient conditions and factors required to bring about a desirable outcome in the fight against TB. One such factor holding back countries especially from achieving their targets is lack of political will and civil society’s engagement.

The call had been for political leaders to intervene, advocate and influence national responses to TB through demonstrated collective leadership. TB Caucuses globally serve as a platform for transformed response to TB through uniting parliamentarians with shared commitment to end the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic. The criticality of the national TB Caucus in the fight against TB is immense. For through it, increased resource investments in TB Programmes can be realized, national agenda on eradicating TB can be shaped through policy and legislation, greater reach can be ensued through collective and collaboration between political leaders and the private sector, and also a cascade of national agenda on eradicating TB can be shaped through networking.

This report is about the launch of the TB caucus that took place on 28th June 2018 at the parliament. This was done after realizing that TB is the world’s deadliest communicable disease. Last year 1.7 million people died from TB (compared to 1.2 million from HIV, and 450,000 from Malaria). 10.4 million People fell ill including 1 million children. TB is in the top ten causes of death worldwide. It also predominantly affects people of working age, so has a serious impact on families and communities. With such realization, Malawi decided to fast track the launching process through the Africa TB Caucus member Hon Juliana Lunguzi, who is part of the Global TB Caucus which is a network of 2600 parliamentarians in over 134 countries. With the launch of the Caucus, Malawi joined a number of other African countries in scaling up political commitment towards ending TB by 2030. During the launch of the Caucus, over 80 members of parliament were in attendance and 40 members of Civil Society.

1.2 OBJECTIVES

1. Establishing a vibrant Parliamentary Tuberculosis Caucus in Malawi
2. Commitment to engage head of state ahead of UN HLM
3. Signing on MPs to the Barcelona declaration
4. Ensuring political commitment towards adequate domestic financing for the National TB Response
5. Increase meaningful engagement of affected communities in Tuberculosis control in Malawi