Launch of the Stock-Out campaign in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe successfully launched the Stop Stock-Outs Campaign on Thursday 17 September 2009 at a highly attended workshop. The campaign is part of a regional movement that aims to ensure access to essential medicines for all. Affected communities, civil society, media, government and the pharmaceutical industry attending the workshop agreed that stock-outs of essential medicines, particularly in the public sector were wide spread and unacceptable.

Speaking at the launch of the campaign, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare (MoH & CW), Dr. Gwinji attributed the stock outs to the economic challenges facing the once thriving
nation. Civil society organisations attending the workshop highlighted pilferage of medicines and low prioritisation of the health sector by government, as the major challenges to accessing essential medicines.

The workshop aimed to;
1. Share experiences on access to essential medicines at local and national level
2. Review the existing public policies and practices surrounding access to medicines in Zimbabwe
3. Develop a civil society plan of action on access to essential medicines

Civil society organisations participating in the workshop, among others SAfAIDS, Women and Aids Support Network (WASN), ActionAid-Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), Cancer Association of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Diabetic Association (ZDA) resolved that civil society with the coordination of the Community Working Group on Health should take up the following ACTION;

1. Resource mobilisation (Prioritise health)
Participants agreed to engage the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health (PPCH) to ensure the prioritisation of health evidenced by increased allocation of resources. The issue of lack of funding to produce essential medicines should be tackled through parliament in order to influence the national budgetary allocation for health and ensure that the Abuja targets are met as a minimum. However, given the committee’s weaknesses, participants agreed on the need to also engage at a higher level through Parliament at large and line ministries including the ministries of Health and Child Welfare; Finance; Trade and Investment.

2. Community mobilisation and awareness-raising on essential medicines.
There is need for the development of information, education and communication (IEC) materials on Access to Essential Medicines (AEM) for communities, complemented by media outreach to support the campaign. Although medicines are generally not available, this will empower the public to push and demand their rights to access essential medicines.

3. Create Monitoring mechanism on AEM
Participants agreed on the need to conduct independent monitoring of stock-outs through activities such as the SMS pill check. However, this should not be a parallel structure to that of the MoH&CW but would be a civil society initiative. Participating organisations would work with existing government structures where possible. This would expose where stock-outs were occurring within the supply chain and enable evidence-based advocacy. This has proved useful as a best practice in other countries involved in the AEM campaign. It would also allow communities to play an active role in the campaign.

4. Capacity Building
The need to build the capacity of CSOs in Zimbabwe on AEM policy and regulation, as well as basic information on essential medicines was expressed. The campaign should strengthen community groups working on health in Zimbabwe, to institutionalise and to sustain the momentum that the campaign has built at national level.