USAID Medicines, Technologies, and Pharmaceutical Services (MTaPS) Program: Quarterly Report Fiscal Year 2020, Quarter 1 (October–December 2019)

The program is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by a team led by Management Sciences for Health (MSH). The primary goal of the MTaPS Program is to ensure sustainable access to and appropriate use of safe, effective, quality-assured, and affordable essential medicines, vaccines, and other health technologies and pharmaceutical services. The program's approach to strengthening pharmaceutical systems is based on USAID's Vision for Pharmaceutical Systems Strengthening, which posits six functions of health systems that must be strengthened to achieve sustained and equitable access to essential, high-quality services. These functions include human resources, health finance, health governance, health information, medical products/vaccines/technologies, and service delivery. The MTaPS Program has adopted this framework to the pharmaceutical sector, focusing on the role medical products are expected to play in improving health system performance. The MTaPS Program is organized into five core objectives, which are designed to address specific challenges in pharmaceutical systems. These objectives include strengthening pharmaceutical-sector governance, increasing institutional and human resource capacity for pharmaceutical management and services, improving the availability and use of pharmaceutical information for decision making, optimizing pharmaceutical-sector financing, and improving pharmaceutical services, including product availability and patient-centered care to achieve desired health outcomes. During the first quarter of fiscal year 2020 (October-December 2019), the MTaPS Program made significant progress in achieving its objectives. In the Global Health Security Agenda, the program supported the development of a national pharmaceutical management information system in a low-income country, which improved the availability and use of pharmaceutical information for decision making. In the Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health portfolio, the program strengthened the capacity of a national regulatory authority to regulate medical products, improving the safety and quality of medicines available to patients. The program also made progress in strengthening pharmaceutical systems in several countries, including Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, The Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and others. In these countries, the program supported the development of national pharmaceutical management information systems, strengthened the capacity of national regulatory authorities, and improved the availability and use of pharmaceutical information for decision making. Overall, the MTaPS Program is making significant progress in strengthening pharmaceutical systems in low- and middle-income countries, improving access to and appropriate use of safe, effective, quality-assured, and affordable essential medicines, vaccines, and other health technologies and pharmaceutical services.