MeTA Countries
The seven pilot countries – Ghana, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, the Philippines, Uganda and Zambia – vary enormously. But all their governments have made a high-level political commitment to sign up to MeTA’s core principles, to increase accountability at all levels of the medicines supply chain, and to work with the private sector and with civil society in order to take MeTA forward.
The countries have made commitments to support the formation of a national secretariat and a MeTA National Stakeholder Forum and to make information available to the public on the quality, availability, pricing and promotion of medicines. Each pilot country selects its own priority areas for improvement in the medicines supply chain and these chosen areas become the focus of their work.
In the opening months of MeTA, results were visible. Peru and the Philippines, for example, have a history of often acrimonious debate about responsibility for lack of access to medicines, with representatives of one sector sometimes refusing to sit with “opponents”. In both countries, MeTA has been able to facilitate a process to bring these people round a table – not to consider who was to blame but to discuss how to help poor people obtain affordable, quality medicines.
In Kyrgyzstan, a range of stakeholders are particularly concerned about high medicine prices and limited access to medicines in rural areas.
Transparency and medicines in Peru have come together to provide an opportunity to get affordable, quality medicines to the poorest people.
Stakeholders in the Philippines pinpointed lack of transparency in pricing, promotion and procurement of medicines as critical factors.
Over the past 14 years the Ugandan Government has made considerable efforts to improve the capacity of the health sector.
In Zambia, working together has the potential to improve transparency in the medicine supply chain and, ultimately, to improve people's health.
