Yes! We Can End TB: GFAN Africa’s Call to Action on World TB Day 2026
Tomorrow, on World TB Day, GFAN Africa will call on African governments to take decisive action to end TB.
TB remains Africa’s most lethal infectious disease. According to the WHO Global TB Report 2025, 10.7 million people were affected by TB and 1.23 million died from this preventable disease in 2024. Africa has achieved a 28% reduction in TB incidence since 2015, which shows that progress is possible. But funding cuts and systemic barriers threaten to reverse these hard-won gains. Global TB financing reached just 27% of the annual target in 2024, and modelling warns that sustained donor cuts could cause up to 2 million additional TB deaths by 2035.
Our call to African leaders
Ahead of World TB Day, we are sending a letter to African leaders asking them to prioritise three areas:
1. Strengthen health systems and people-centred TB services. This means funding national TB strategic plans, expanding access to shorter-course treatment and prevention, and treating community-led approaches such as peer support, stigma reduction, counselling and nutritional support as essential components of the response. Communities are the backbone of the TB response, and they must be protected and resourced.
2. Close the funding gap by increasing domestic resources & supporting global health institutions. Funding cuts cost lives. Governments should set a clear budgetary roadmap toward the 15% Abuja Declaration target, champion the Global Fund’s successful replenishment, and make sure domestic budgets cover the gaps left by withdrawn donor funding.
3. Advance regional manufacturing and implementation readiness. Make in Africa, for Africa. This includes investing in local and regional manufacturing of TB diagnostics, medicines and preventive therapies, harmonising regulatory pathways through the African Medicines Agency, and removing bureaucratic hurdles so that new TB tools reach people as soon as they are available. Local and regional manufacturing means faster access, fewer delays and more resilient health systems.
The full letter can be read here: GFAN Africa – World TB Day Letter 2026
Join us in amplifying the call
To amplify these messages, we have developed a World TB Day social media toolkit and shared it with the GFAN Africa network. Members are encouraged to use it to spread key messages online using the hashtags #WorldTBDay #EndTB #YesWeCanEndTB. We also invite partners to send the letter to their respective ministries of health.
The African continent has demonstrated that with political will and investment, we can make progress against this deadly disease. Together, we can end TB.
