Based on data from the 2016 Global Tuberculosis Report, Indonesia is ranked second behind India with the most TB sufferers. This figure is quite worrying considering that TB is an infectious disease that can spread very quickly through the air and without the sufferer being able to know directly. One of the contributions made by PATTIRO to participate in TB control in Indonesia is providing capacity building for CSOs to be actively involved in the planning and budgeting process and budget advocacy for TB control in the regions. PATTIRO held Planning and Budgeting Training for CSOs in parallel in 4 regions, namely Jayapura City, Jember Regency, Surakarta City, and Bandung City. This activity was attended by activists from various civil society organizations that focus on health issues.

PATTIRO Director, Maya Rostanty explained that this training aims to increase the capacity of CSOs to advocate for TB control in planning and budgeting and encourage active participation of CSOs in regional planning and budgeting processes. “Through this capacity increase, it is hoped that CSOs can be actively involved in TB control by encouraging budget policies in the regions. “We hope that with this activity, civil society organizations can play their role by participating in providing policy and budget recommendations for TB control to the Regional Government,” he said.

In the training which was held for 4 days, participants were given material regarding TB and its prevention, APBD and its relationship with health services, APBD principles and principles, APBD cycles, APBD analysis, and how to carry out budget advocacy for TB. “Participants are given the knowledge to carry out budget analysis practices so that the results of this analysis will later become material for budget policy recommendations for TB control,” said Asiswanto, Local Facilitator for Jember Regency.

From the results of practical analysis carried out by training participants in Jember Regency, it was found that the TB policy in the RPJMD is still not “concrete” and is still very “general” in terms of vision, mission, goals, objectives, policy direction and even regional priority programs. Although there are government efforts to increase the “level of health” of the community through increasing improvements to the Health SPM which includes targets related to TB. Another finding is that there are no specific programs/activities for TB control in Jember Regency, even though Jember Regency is ranked second in terms of TB sufferers in East Java province. “As CSOs, everyone is involved, but one thing that needs to be intensified is cooperation. “TOSS TB is not just a slogan, but an extraordinary expression to mobilize all elements of society to be proactively involved in working together to tackle TB,” said Emi, one of the training participants in Jember Regency.

In line with Emi, dr. Hendro, Chair of PPM Jember, stated that there are three important elements to work together to tackle TB, namely the government, CSOs and the private sector. “Each element has roles and tasks that support each other. “The three of them can sit together to formulate effective policies and solutions to tackle TB,” said Dr. Hendro.

As a follow-up to this training, PATTIRO will provide assistance to CSOs to prepare budget policy recommendations and hold CSO meetings that support advocacy work. (FM)