About
Founded in Tbilisi, Georgia in May 2022, Georgia’s National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC) and the National Center for Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (NCTLD) are leading the COE’s efforts to improve and harness TB data, expand knowledge sharing, and promote best practices in TB M&E and surveillance in the EEE region.
The primary purpose of the COE is to enhance the effectiveness of TB M&E across the region through improved data practices, collaboration, and capacity building, ensuring that TB data is used effectively to make informed decisions and scale up the impact of efforts towards ending TB. To accomplish this, the COE aims to serve as a model for best practices in TB M&E and surveillance and to promote inter-country collaboration and partnership.
Consultative Meetings and Workshops
These meetings and workshops laid the foundation for inter-country partnership and collaboration. The meetings introduced tools and approaches for M&E system assessments and strengthening, identified common challenges, maximized collective insights, shared best practices in TB data collection and quality assurance processes, and provided insight to strengthen TB data strategies and improve the quality and use of TB data.
Regional and Country-level In-person Trainings
The COE has supported the development of 11 training modules customized to the regional context. In 2023, five countries were engaged in a TB M&E and Surveillance Training of Trainers (TOT) that resulted in over 20 master trainers
E-Learning/Virtual Trainings
The COE provided consolidated guidance on TB data generation and use and supported a virtual ToT platform in TB M&E and Surveillance.
Regional TB Data Use Conferences
With TB DIAH funding and support, the COE hosted two regional conferences (2022 and 2023) to review TB data; share NTP progress updates; gather collective insights in TB data reporting, analysis, visualization, and use; and receive updates from technical partners such as USAID, Stop TB Partnership, Global Fund, and WHO/Euro.
Regional Technical Working Group (RTWG) on TB M&E and Surveillance
Established under the leadership of the COE, the primarily virtual RTWG supports data driven TB control efforts. The RTWG facilitates inter-country collaboration and partnership between NTPs and TB stakeholders, serves as an M&E community advisory body for collective solution seeking, and functions as a platform to bridge the gaps in collaborative problem-solving initiatives.
Virtual Platform
The COE website is a hub for COE information and resources. Visitors can find the objectives, pillars of work, key TB data for each EEE country, and links to other COE resources such as success stories, training reports, and webinars. The website serves as a resource hub for other components of the virtual platform such as MELVIN, a conversational artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot aimed at expanding M&E knowledge and enhancing learning experiences in TB, and the Digital Knowledge Base, a curated collection of TB M&E resources, e-learning materials and a community supported bookmark collection contributing to research, dissemination, expertise building.
Technical Assistance to Other NTPs
As regional leaders in establishing best practices in TB M&E, NCDC and NCTLD staff on behalf of the COE have provided technical assistance to NTPs in the EEE and Central Asia regions, demonstrating the COE’s leadership and collaborative role.