LIGHT PROJECT – Zankli Research Center

LIGHT – Leaving no-one behind: transforming Gendered pathways to Health for TB

LIGHT is a six-year cross-disciplinary global health research programme funded by UK aid, led by LSTM in collaboration with partners in Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, and the UK. LIGHT aims to support policy and practice in transforming gendered pathways to health for people with TB in urban settings. This will lead to enhanced overall health and well-being, improved socio-economic outcomes, equity, and will contribute to the efforts of ending TB.

The LIGHT Consortium aims to contribute to real-world change and leave no-one affected by TB in sub-Saharan Africa behind. The research programme strives to enhance global and national policy environments and health systems, enabling a sustainable and equitable access to quality TB services. LIGHT’s approach aspires to reduce the overall TB mortality and morbidity.

Objectives

Generating new evidence to inform gender-responsive policies that are effectively actioned to improve male access to quality TB care, including diagnosis and prevention. This will lead to:

a) reducing the number of people with TB-related ill health and deaths;

b) reducing transmission to the wider community (including to women and children);

c) alleviating the financial burden associated with TB for affected individuals and their families and;

d) improving health and social outcomes for people living in high TB burden settings.

• Strengthening the capacity of individuals, institutions, and multiple stakeholders in LIGHT countries to generate, adapt, translate, and utilise evidence, as well as managing research.

• Engaging strategically with a range of key national, regional, and global stakeholders to ensure that our research is informed, relevant, effectively communicated, and timely for maximum impact. This includes informing policy discussions with evidence from LIGHT on how gender-responsive policies can significantly enhance access to TB prevention, diagnosis, and care.

Research

LIGHT aims to generate new evidence to inform policies that are gender-responsive and effectively actioned to improve male access to quality TB care; to reduce the number of people with TB-related ill health and deaths; to reduce transmission to the wider community, including to women and girls; and to reduce devastating associated costs for those with TB and their families.

Our research includes:

• Understanding the TB burden in Kenya, among young people - including barriers to TB screening, diagnosis and treatment.

• Assessing ways to actively find young men with TB in various settings in Malawi;

• Evaluating the acceptability, convenience and effectiveness of identifying and linking men with TB to care pathways in places where they gather in densely populated communities, in Nigeria; and

• Implementing interventions for men in healthcare facilities in Uganda.

We are also conducting research across our African-partner countries to compare various contexts and support scale-up of effective TB interventions through:

• modelling studies;

• health economic analysis; and through

• working in partnership with TB affected communities to co-produce solutions with them.