A civil society initiative that aims to scale up and sustain improved access to medicines in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region has been launched in Lusaka, Zambia.
A civil society initiative that aims to scale up and sustain improved access to medicines in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region has been launched in Lusaka, Zambia.
The Consumer Action Forum (CAF), which is the creation of the Southern African Regional Programme on Access to Medicines and Diagnostics (SARPAM), seeks to positively influence the pharmaceutical market to advance access to essential medicines.
The launch took place at Protea Hotel Cairo Road in downtown Lusaka and was attended by 17 representatives of civil society organisations from across Zambia. Speaking at the event, Daniel Molokele, civil society partnerships coordinator at SARPAM, said the setting up of the CAF would be a good additional to existing platforms that seeks to promote quality service delivery in the health sector.
“We are not reinventing the wheel, we are merely adding our voices to the existing platforms that are pushing for accountability and transparency in public health,” said Molokele.
“This is not a foreign concept. This is a local concept, the issue of access to medicine is a daily problem for millions of people in Southern Africa,” he said.
“CAF is purely a civil society led component of SARPAM and its aim is to fight for better access to medicines for people in the region,” he added.
Molokele added that CAF adds to the initiatives of country governments, the SADC Secretariat, the private sector and other development partners to increase access to high quality, affordable, essential medicines to meet the health needs of poor people in the SADC region.
SARPAM is a regional programme funded by the UK’s Department of International Development aimed at improving access to medicines and diagnostics in the Southern African region. It is being implemented from July 2011 to December 2014. Zambia is one of the four selected pilot countries from the eight SADC countries.
Molokele said the lack of essential medicines is a big public health scandal in the SADC region. He revealed that with over 250 million residents, the SADC region is only able to provide medicines for 20 million people.
“Access to medicines is a big challenge in SADC. Some patients have to make alternative plans to access medicine, maybe from relatives in another country. It’s really sad because SADC is the epicenter for international pandemics such as HIV, malaria and TB,” Molokele said.
“Zambians should not accept the situation as it stands; don’t take it as normal that when a person goes to the clinic they are turned back because kulibe mankwala (there are no medicines) – this is not acceptable,” Molokele said.
He added: “CAF in Zambia will focus on issues that are affecting access to medicines for the ordinary people of Zambia, especially at the clinic level. The CAF team will come up with campaign strategies, lobbying strategies and advocacy strategies.”
Molokele said the CAF will operate alongside the Tracking Essential National Medicines and Diagnostics Access Initiative (TENDAI) Project, which is a pilot whose aim is to identify priority breakthrough action points with regards to scaling up of access to essential medicines in the region, especially at a local community level. The project will see monitoring and data collection carried out at community level on access to medicine including analysis on the essential medicine available at local health centers.
At the same event, some TENDAI monitors welcomed the launch of CAF and shared their experiences on implementing the project in Zambia and were also trained on advocacy strategies.
Chanda Bwelele of Mongu in Western Zambia said the first six months of the TENDAI project was a learning experience for him and he is now looking forward to working on the CAF project.
“We have learnt some essential lobbying and advocacy strategies and I cannot wait to implement such strategies in the field,” Bwelele said.
In a vote of thanks at the closure of the workshop, Treatment Advocacy Literacy Campaign Country director Felix Mwanza said the coming in of CAF provides a unique opportunity for the civil society in Zambia to work together to reach a common goal.
“Please for once, let’s show the people that the civil society can still work together and achieve something for the benefit of everyone,” Mwanza said.
He commended Molokele for the leadership provided during the workshop and further commended SARPAM for choosing to work closely with the local civil society groups in implementing the CAF.
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