USAID MTaPS Recognized in the 2020 GHSA Report for Strengthening Global Health Security
The FY 2020 Global Health Security Agenda Annual Report, released by the White House on October 14, 2021, recognizes USAID’s contributions to strengthening global health security through its Medicines, Technologies, and Pharmaceuticals Services (MTaPS) Program, among other efforts. The GHSA report, which shares progress and impact from the US Government’s investments in strengthening the GHSA, highlights MTaPS’ efforts to manage COVID-19 transmission in 2020 by leveraging its ongoing infection prevention and control (IPC) work in countries to protect health care workers during the pandemic.
The 2020 GHSA report cites MTaPS’ work to combat COVID-19 by strengthening IPC, supply chain management, and health care waste management in more than 3,100 health care facilities across 14 countries and training more than 38,000 health care workers on COVID-19-specific IPC protocols, including appropriate procedures around personal protective equipment, triage, sanitation, and handwashing (read more about MTaPS’ COVID response).
“The U.S. is proud to be supporting countries to stop COVID-19 and build back better for future health emergencies. The data is clear: together we can stop outbreaks at their source, and these investments will make us all safer,” stated Jake Sullivan, US National Security Advisor, on the occasion of the report’s release.
The report also calls out MTaPS for assisting countries to contain the threat of antimicrobial resistance in a multisectoral fashion that is grounded in the One Health approach. The report highlights MTaPS’ approaches to advance antimicrobial stewardship in countries to improve prescribing and use of antimicrobials by all actors in health care delivery (read more about MTaPS’ GHSA work).
“Controlling the global hazard of antimicrobial resistance and achieving the goals of the Global Health Security Agenda rely on robust pharmaceutical management systems worldwide that can ensure sustained access to and appropriate use of all medicines, including antibiotics—a niche area of expertise that MTaPS brings and its mission in countries,” says Francis Aboagye-Nyame, USAID MTaPS Program Director.
MTaPS is USAID’s key implementing program of its GHSA mandate to contain the global threat of antimicrobial resistance. Through its GHSA work, the program is assisting the US Government in executing its top national priority “to defeat this pandemic and to invest in strengthening health systems globally so that we are better prepared to prevent, detect, and respond to the next global health threat.”
MTaPS is implemented by Management Sciences for Health, a global health nonprofit, along with a consortium of global and local partners.