Throughout Africa, The Union provides technical assistance, education and research programmes in tuberculosis (TB), multidrug-resistant TB, child TB, TB-HIV and tobacco control.

Throughout the Asia Pacific region, The Union provides technical assistance, research and training programmes in tobacco control, tuberculosis (TB), non-communicable diseases, and health data. The Union has an Asia Pacific Office, based in Singapore, as well as a Asia Pacific membership group to help us meet our challenges in the region.

Conference Declaration on Accelerating Action to End Tuberculosis in the Asia-Pacific Region

The Conference is deeply concerned that tuberculosis remains the most urgent and unfinished public health challenge in the Asia-Pacific region, which continues to bear the largest share of the global TB burden while progress toward the End TB 2030 targets remains dangerously off track. The Conference is alarmed that, despite the availability of effective diagnostics, treatment, and proven public health tools, tuberculosis transmission continues because current approaches are not adequately aligned with the epidemiological realities of high-burden settings. Overreliance on passive case detection, fragmented communication, persistent stigma, and the allocation of limited resources to low[1]impact interventions are allowing preventable illness and deaths to continue.

The Conference calls on governments, partners, and stakeholders across the Asia-Pacific region to urgently prioritize interventions with the greatest epidemiological impact, including universal rapid molecular testing with same-day drug resistance detection, systematic and people-centered active case finding at scale, strong local accountability, reliable information and supply systems, and comprehensive support for treatment completion. The Conference further emphasizes that communication, education, and stigma reduction are essential components of tuberculosis control, and urges expanded use of social media, public education, and community engagement to normalize testing, counter misinformation, and build public trust in care. The Conference calls on the Union Asia-Pacific Region to support monitoring, advocacy, and regional collaboration to accelerate measurable progress toward the End TB targets. The Asia-Pacific region has the expertise and responsibility to change the course of tuberculosis. To succeed, extraordinary action is required, not business as usual

Europe is the home of The Union’s headquarters in Paris, France. Through our offices in Europe, The Union works at a strategic level to influence global health policy. 

The Union’s headquarters in Paris is the global cornerstone of the organisation, taking on a coordinating role, sets policy and provides financial oversight of the organisation. The Union Switzerland Office, based in Geneva, acts as the political convenor for The Union, working at a strategic level to influence global health policy through high-level discussion and partnership.

In Latin America, through the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use Grants Program, The Union supports governments and non-governmental organisations working in tobacco control and manages grants projects to promote key interventions, such as tax increases and smoke-free environments.

The Union has worked in Latin America since 2006 providing grants and tobacco control technical support to organisations through the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use (BI) Grants Program.

Mexico and Brazil are BI Grants Program priority countries, but The Union also provides support to other countries in the region.

The Union’s work in Latin America has led to major tobacco control policy achievements, including:

Since 2006, The Union has provided technical assistance to strengthen and enforce tobacco control policies. For example, The Union supported the adoption of 14 state-level smokefree policies protecting more than 53 percent of Mexico’s population. In 2020, Mexico issued a landmark presidential decree, prohibiting the import of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, sending a clear message that public health must be prioritised over the tobacco industry’s commercial interests. Read more.

The Union has facilitated Brazil’s tobacco control work for more than a decade, working alongside national organisations on major country-wide tobacco control policy reforms. Brazil is now a global leader for tobacco control and has seen a significant drop in adult smoking rates. In 2019, the Government of Brazil filed a landmark lawsuit against British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International, seeking to recover five years of smoking-related illness costs paid by the public health system. Read more.

In 2018, Uruguay became the first Latin American country to introduce tobacco product plain packaging; this proven strategy is a powerful tactic in the tobacco control arsenal as it discourages users—both new and current. The Union helped the government build a solid evidence base for the initiative, including a study demonstrating that plain packaging increased tobacco product risk perception among Uruguayan smokers. Read more.

The Union provides technical assistance and training to a number of countries across the region including Djibouti, Morocco and United Arab Emirates.

The mission of the NAR of the Union is to the significant capacity of the Region to enable members and other health care providers and administrators to promote better lung health care in North American region through advocacy, education, research, technical assistance and training-with tuberculosis prevention and elimination a priority. The main objective of the region is to co-ordinate, stimulate, and develop the activities of member national tuberculosis or lung association or official health service agencies within the Region in accordance with the objectives of the Union.  

The Region will achieve this by:   

1. Promoting the community, education, and scientific work of national tuberculosis and other lung disease associations within the Region. It will work with other organizations having similar objectives;

2. Organizing regional tuberculosis and lung disease conferences and encouraging and    facilitating the exchange of scientific and other information between member    associations and individuals:  

3. Encouraging the creation and continuance of national tuberculosis and other lung    disease associations in all the countries in the region and their affiliation to The    Union; and working with the Institute of The Union in implementing activities that    will enhance tuberculosis prevention and elimination, and lung health in the region;  

4. Promoting interest in, understanding of and advocacy against tuberculosis and lung diseases as public health problems, and mobilizing support for technical assistance, training and research.

Throughout South-East Asia, The Union provides public health expertise to the region’s governments, civil society, corporations and international agencies on TB, HIV and tobacco control, working in close partnership with the Ministries of Health and health services. It also conducts operational research, capacity-building programmes and grant-monitoring services.

The Union South-East Asia Office was The Union’s first region office, located in India. The Union Office in Myanmar located in Mandalay provides HIV and TB-HIV programmes.

For more info about our South East Asia region, please visit https://theunion.org/our-work/south-east-asia