Pretoria - The Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board – an international body which assists in the fight against TB - has elected South African Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi as its chairperson.
Motsoaledi will take up his new role following the closing of the 23rd Coordinating Board meeting, currently taking place in Ottawa, Canada.
According to the Department of Health, since joining the Stop TB Partnership Board in 2010, Motsoaledi has played a key role in pushing TB up the political agenda.
Together with the health leaders from Lesotho and Swaziland, Motsoaledi brought the issue of TB in the mining sector to the attention of Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders in 2011. These efforts resulted in the signing last year of the SADC Heads of State Declaration on TB in the Mining Sector.
Accepting his new role, Motsoaledi reaffirmed his commitment to achieving the vision of zero TB deaths and zero new TB infections.
He said he was also convinced that the only way to stop TB, both nationally and internationally, was through partnership.
“This is why I am honoured to take on this additional responsibility and look forward to working to forge transformative alliances involving partners from multiple sectors,” Motsoaledi said.
Executive Secretary of the Stop TB Partnership, Dr Lucica Ditiu, said to beat TB, the partnership needed a bold and ambitious leader.
“Minister Motsoaledi’s vision for a world free of TB, coupled with his deep personal commitment and inspiring political leadership across the African region and beyond make him the natural choice to take us forward at this critical time,” said Ditiu.
Motsoaledi is joined on the Coordinating Board by nine new board members. This is in addition to the five new constituency representatives announced in June namely, Dr Jarbas Barbosa da Silva Jr; Secretary of Health Surveillance at the Brazilian Ministry of Health, Shri Keshav Desiraju; Additional Secretary at India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Muhammad Ali Pate; Minister of State for Health at Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health and Dr Pe Thet Khin, Union Minister of Health at Myanmar’s Ministry of Health joined the Board as country representatives.
The appointments, which all result from open calls for nominations, follow Coordinating Board reforms that are designed to broaden the base of partners represented on the board and encourage the development of strong, active constituencies. – SAnews.gov.za
