Increasing transparency in partnerships for health – introducing the Green Light Committee

Abstract

Summary Public–private partnerships have become central to efforts to combat infectious diseases. The characteristics of specific partnerships, their governance structures, and their ability to effectively address the issues for which they are developed are being clarified as experience is gained. In an attempt to promote access to and rational use of second‐line anti‐tuberculosis (TB) drugs for the treatment of multidrug‐resistant TB, a unique partnership known as the Green Light Committee (GLC) was established by the World Health Organization. This partnership relies on five categories of actors to achieve its goal: academic institutions, civil society organizations, bilateral donors, governments of resource‐limited countries, and a specialized United Nations agency. While the for‐profit private sector is involved in terms of supplying concessionally priced drugs it is excluded from decision‐making. The effectiveness of the partnership emerges from its review process, flexibility to modify its modus operandi to overcome obstacles, independence from the commercial sector, and its ability to link access, rational use, technical assistance, and policy development. The GLC mechanism may be useful in the development of other partnerships needed in the rational allocation of resources and tools for combating additional infectious diseases.

HIV Infection and Multidrug‐Resistant Tuberculosis—The Perfect Storm

“…Failure to do so will only generate additional MDR-TB cases, as has been demonstrated by various studies [171,172]. Improving capacity will involve more countries applying to the WHO-coordinated treatment initiative known as the Green Light Committee for access to qualityassured, concessionary-priced second-line anti-TB drugs [173]. As part of the application process, countries receive technical assistance with program implementation coordinated through the Green Light Committee.…”

Treatment of tuberculosis: update 2010

“…In countries with significant financial difficulties, additional support, besides technical assistance, from international organisations and governments of industrialised countries would be needed, further to that obtained from local governments [108]. In this regard, the Green Light Committee of the Stop TB Partnership, involving WHO and collaborators, has played a significant role in helping the implementation of these programmes in countries with an affordability problem in the management of MDR tuberculosis [109].…”

Scale-up of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis Laboratory Services, Peru

“…Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR TB) is associated with high death rates among patients co-infected with HIV and has led to renewed efforts to strengthen TB control (2,3) Program managers and policy makers face the urgent task of quickly scaling-up comprehensive TB programs, often in settings with minimal infrastructure. Although daunting, the task appears feasible in light of favorable early treatment outcomes for multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) treatment programs, the growing cadre of technical experts, consensus on TB and MDR TB management (4), and availability of global resources to fund programs (5,6).…”