The Challenge
Medical products and related pharmaceutical services play a decisively large role in determining health outcomes. With the challenges prevalent in low- and middle-income countries, such as high out-of-pocket expenses for medicines and substandard and falsified products, success with treatments for common diseases is gravely impeded. Access to safe and quality medicines at an affordable price and their responsible use by all populations can help countries prevent maternal and child deaths, create an AIDS-free generation, and protect their communities from infectious disease threats.
Further, ensuring appropriate use of medical products can help control antimicrobial resistance, a growing global threat that is making infections harder to treat.
MTaPS Goal
Funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by a consortium led by Management Sciences for Health (MSH), MTaPS aims to help low- and middle-income countries strengthen their pharmaceutical systems to ensure sustainable access to and appropriate use of safe, effective, quality-assured, and affordable essential medicines and pharmaceutical services.
The five-year program builds upon the work of its predecessor program, the USAID-funded Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS).
MTaPS Objectives
MTaPS approach to strengthening pharmaceutical systems is grounded in attaining five main objectives as illustrated below.
MTaPS approach to strengthening of pharmaceutical systems focuses on improvements in seven technical areas to ensure robust and resilient outcomes:
- Improve pharmaceutical sector governance
- Strengthen the national regulatory system
- Increase institutional and human resource capacity
- Increase the availability and use of pharmaceutical information for decision-making
- Improve pharmaceutical sector financing
- Strengthen supply chain management
- Enhance pharmaceutical services, including building pharmacovigilance systems and improving pharmacy practices
Sustainable access to safe, effective and quality-assured medicines and their appropriate use by all populations are key to eliminating epidemics and preventing avoidable deaths. MTaPS works with countries in the following health areas to drive better health outcomes in a sustained way:
A Special Focus Area of MTaPS: Supporting the Global Health Security Agenda
As a core part of its work, USAID MTaPS supports USAID’s efforts under the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a growing threat to the efficacy of treatments worldwide. Meeting the MTaPS objective of improving pharmaceutical services to achieve health outcomes, these efforts are directed toward building countries’ capacities to optimize their use of antimicrobials and avert infectious disease threats – thus securing health nationally and globally.
