Factors affecting availability and affordability range from corruption to lack of proper planning that result in stock-outs of medicines for diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, as well as common and manageable conditions such as diabetes and HIV.

A new booklet on the struggle for access to essential medicines in East and Southern Africa has been released by the stop stock-outs campaign partners with the support of Open Society Institute (OSI). It contains a selection of short stories from different parts of East and Southern Africa that shows the great difficulties ordinary people face in accessing essential medicines.

The booklet further brings out the glaring inequalities that exist between the rich and poor when it comes to accessing basic services. It reveals how most people in many African countries have been forced to forego treatment, accept compromised services or turn to quack cures, while others live in fear of premature death simply because their limited income affects their health choices.

It is hoped that experiences shared by people who have faced stock outs of essential medicines in this booklet will open eyes and minds of policy makers so that they can effect change that brings positive results, improve people’s lives and avoid preventable, premature deaths that result from treatable conditions.

Download the stop-out Stories Booklet

The week dubbed ‘pill check week’ will involve each country team visiting government health facilities in their countries and using a list of 10 essential
medicines, check for what is in stock and what is stocked out.

The teams will then report back the results through short messaging services (SMS) to a common site, and the data will be reflected visually in an online mapping of the region that will show areas where medication is stocked out in each of the five countries involved in the campaign. The results will be made available on the regional campaign website www.stopstockputs.org.

These findings of this exciting and innovative project will be used by the campaign partners to urge governments to honour their commitments to provide essential medicines for all.

The workshop was held prior to the Fourth Conference of African Ministers of Health Meeting (CAMH4) held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 4-8 May 2009. The theme of CAMH4 was “Universal Access to Essential Health Services: Improving Maternal and Child Rights.

The workshop followed the launch of the Africa-wide campaign, Stop the Stock-outs: Access to Essential Medicines for All, in February 2009. Oxfam and HAI Africa, together with other regional and national partners from Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, launched the campaign to highlight the public health impact of stock-outs of essential medicines in health facilities across the continent. The campaign stresses the imperative for African governments to fulfil their commitments to ensuring access to medicines for all their people.

The aim of the workshop was to develop a coordinated national, regional and continental advocacy action plan focused on improving access to medicines across the continent. The meeting had discussions with key continental and sub-regional policy makers relevant to ensuring access to medicines.

The meeting participants were drawn from the African Union, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Oxfam, Mission for Essential Drug Supplies (MEDS), East African Community (EAC), Ministries of health in Kenya and Ethiopia, HAI Africa and partners from the five African countries involved in the stock-outs campaign Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe,.

Calls to governments in Africa

The civil society organisations present at the meeting under the umbrella of “stop stock outs” campaign partners urged governments to eliminate stock outs from all public and mission health institutions.

The group asked governments in Africa to provide a dedicated national budget line for essential medicines. They want governments to allow for complete autonomy of central medical stores and provide effective representation of civil society on the boards of national and regional procurement agencies.

They further urged governments to express their commitment to the integration of all Trade Related Intellectual Property Agreements (TRIPS) flexibilities relevant to maternal and child health into their national legislation. This, they say, should include parallel importation; broader grounds for compulsory licensing such as to prevent anti-competitive practices; implementing the Least Developed Countries transition period of excluding pharmaceutical patents from patentability until 2016; and the exclusion of new use / second use patents.

The campaign partners also called for particular action on the integration into law of those TRIPS flexibilities that support the local production of pharmaceuticals. They further urged governments to agree to look into increasing information on patent status of essential medicines to facilitate local manufacture of non-patented medicines which are more affordable.

They strongly urged governments to consider national and sub-regional pooled procurement of essential medicines and medical supplies for improved public health delivery. Pooled procurement allows for member states from regional economic communities such as EAC and SADC to come together to combine resources and procure from selected sources of medicines to take advantages of economies of scale.

They were also deeply concerned with the emergence of anti-counterfeit legislations in Africa, which tend to confuse and label generic medicines as counterfeits. African governments were urged to enact legislations that differentiate generic medicines from counterfeits in their national legislation so as to protect local production, importation and use.

Finally, the campaign partners urged governments to honour the Abuja commitments where they pledged to allocate 15 percent of their national budgets to health, and to implement innovative public health financing mechanisms including national health insurance schemes to enhance access to health services for all and in particular for women and children.

Civil society organisations participants at the workshop

www.stopstockouts.org is a valuable resource in our campaign to fight for essential medicines for all. www.stopstockouts.org will carry regular features and updates on the Stop The Stock-outs campaign; will keep you informed on campaign events; feature case studies from members of our community; host regular discussions on issues surrounding the campaign for essential medicines for all; hold a resource centre where you can download campaign material for your own activities; carry pictures from campaign events and much more.

Visit www.stopstickouts.org, bookmark the website and subscribe to our RSS feeds to ensure you keep up to date with the campaign.

One-third of the world population cannot regularly access the essential medicines they need. The most affected are populations in Africa, where availability and price are the biggest barriers to access. At any time, public health facilities in Africa have in stock only about half of a core set of essential medicines. These are medicines used to treat common diseases such as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, HIV, TB, diabetes and hypertension; all of which are among the highest causes of death in Africa.

Access to essential medicines is a human right and a cornerstone of an effective primary health care system. Access to free or affordable essential medicines determines whether people live or die, suffer pain and discomfort or have their ailments cured, recover from illness or endure life long disease. Thirty years since the introduction of the above essential medicines definition, there are still simply not enough medicines in public health facilities throughout Africa. Such “stock-outs” are worst in rural areas and poor people are the most affected.

Health Action International (HAI) Africa and Oxfam, in collaboration with Consumer Information Network (CIN), Kenya Access Treatment Movement (KETAM), Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association (KEHPCA), and the Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network (EPN), will host a continental and national (Kenya) launch of campaign titled “Stop Stock-outs” on Thursday 26 February 2009 at the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya.

The campaign is a call to action for African governments to meet their obligations to provide essential medicines to our people by increasing the national budgetary allocation for the purchase of these medicines and by ensuring efficiency and transparency in the procurement, supply, and distribution of medicines.

The campaign will run in five African countries: Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Uganda, and Zambia. The country launches for Malawi, Madagascar, Uganda and Zambia will take place in March 2009; the dates and full calendar of campaign activities will be released shortly. For information on how to support or participate in “Stop Stock-outs” activities in any of the five campaign countries please contact us at: info@stopstockouts.org

Campaign Partners
Kenya:
KETAM (Kenya Access Treatment Movement)
KEPHCA (Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association)
EPN (Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network)
CIN-Kenya (Consumer Information Network – Kenya)

Malawi
MHEN (Malawi Health Equity Network)

Madagascar
SISAL (Sambatra Izay Salama)

Uganda
HEPS ( Coalition for Health Promotion and Social Development)
NAFOPHANU (National Forum of PLHA Networks in Uganda)
AGHA (Action Group for Health Human Rights and HIV/AIDS)

Zambia
TALC (Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign)
NZP+ (Network of Zambian People Living with HIV/AIDS)

Regional/International
OXFAM
HAI Africa (Health Action International Africa)
OSI (Open Society Institute)