Following up our first Phase of the Community-Led Monitoring (CLM) Short-Term Assistance in Mongolia where we supported the country in developing a CLM Strategy (link here), APCASO, as assigned CLM Technical Assistance (TA) Provider for Asia-Pacific under the APCASO/ATAC/EANNASO Consortium, has provided a succeeding phase to finalize the CLM Strategy and to take initial steps to support the establishment of the CLM Coordinating Committee (CC). The establishment of the CC will be initiated by the CLM Task Force (TF) that will be established through the workshop that APCASO facilitated.
Seven TB survivor individuals and members of TB civil society volunteered to be part of the CLM TF during the GC7 TB Mapping Workshop during the week of May 15, which was also organized by APCASO under the Global Fund TB Community, Rights, and Gender (CRG) Strategic Initiative. The TF first met on May 22-23 where APCASO presented the draft Strategy for discussion, as well as the draft Terms of Reference (TOR) of the CLM CC. This meeting resulted in the following achievements:
Figure 1. APCASO facilitates the discussion on the CLM Strategy
Achievement 1: Agreed in-principle steps to support the adoption of the CLM Strategy
- Some questions that were raised and addressed were around the role of the CLM TF in the overall Strategy operationalization that will lead into the establishment of the CC.
- There were also initial number of guidelines that have been proposed and discussed, such as developing guidelines that will target specific populations (e.g. homeless populations) once the CLM has become fully operational.
- The TF also mentioned inclusion of psychosocial responses as part of addressing catastrophic costs of TB treatment.
Achievement 2: Reached in-principle agreement on initial steps to support establishment of the CLM Coordinating Committee
- The TOR has been reviewed and adopted by the CLM TF. This includes increasing the number of CLM CC members from 7 to 11, to include 2 government representatives (1 NTP, 1 government agency rotating every 2 years), 1 private service provider on rotation every 2 years, 1 development partner that will also be on rotation for 2 years, 1 national human rights commission, 6 CSOs on rotation every 3 years (except for MTC as institutional member).
- It was also clarified that the CLM CC will be a decision-making body in relation to the CLM Strategy. The Task Force also agreed that the CC will meet on a quarterly basis, while the ad-hoc meetings will meet and be composed by CLM CC members as necessary.
“I am a part of a small TB community, but I realized that this work with APCASO that I can lead and help a bigger community.” – CLM Task Force member, Mongolia
Figure 2. Members of the newly-formed CLM Task Force together with APCASO and MTC
The Task Force also discussed and agreed the Mongolian translation of the terminology, ‘community-led monitoring’, which is now ONUKh or OHYX, which is a literal translation of CLM. It was the first time that the CLM Task Force actively decided on an important aspect of CLM in the country.
By the end of the 2-day meeting, the CLM TF, together with APCASO, agreed that the final versions of the CLM Strategy and the CLM Coordinating Committee TOR will be taken as the final version and will be handed over to the CLM Coordinating Committee once the Committee is formed. Additional support for the proper implementation and operationalization of the CLM Task Force was necessary for the TF to continue, given how CLM as a mechanism in TB is new in the country. For this to take place, APCASO and MTC committed to provide financial and logistic support to make sure that the CLM Task Force will be able to operate effectively based on their workplan.