What MeTA stakeholders say

Posted on 20 April 2009

At a meeting in London on 7-8 April 2009, representatives from countries participating in the pilot phase of MeTA got together to share their experiences and learning. Here are some extracts from short films that were made.

Paul Lartey, CEO, LaGray Chemical Company, Ghana

“I got involved in MeTA because I was asked to represent the local pharmaceutical manufacturing group known as the Pharmaceutical Manufacturer’s Association of Ghana. My interest in MeTA - in fact the interest of the industry - is to actually make all of our information available. There is a certain perception that the local industry produces sub-standard drugs. I think it would be good that transparency comes up around this, to see how we are regulated, to see the quality of the drugs we make, and if the quality of the drugs we make is not up to standard I think we need to be held to book.”

Watch the film here

Kenneth Hartigan-Go, Executive Director, Zuellig Family Foundation, Philippines

“One of the best things that happened to us is to bring together all these stakeholders round the table. Now we can transparently and openly agree to disagree, or agree to agree on certain points… There’s a greater appreciation of what we have in our country from the legal perspective, from the trade perspective, from the scientific perspective and a human rights perspective which is exactly what this is all about, helping the public to access better quality medicine.

The biggest lesson we have learned so far is trust. Without trust, without the credibility of the people around the table, when we come together to discuss these issues, there can be no success in this programme.”

Watch the film here 

Goodwell Lungu, Executive Director, Transparency International, Zambia

“We believe as Zambians that MeTA has come at the right time and it will be able to help us to ensure that there is less corruption and more transparency in the medicines supply chain. In Zambia we are working with multi-stakeholder groups. There are civil society organisations, private sector organisations, as well as the government, in particular the Ministry of Health. All these particular groups have dedicated time towards planning for what sort of activities we need to implement and what each of the sectors’ role will be. We are happy that all the three sectors have taken part in the planning of what sort of activities will be undertaken.”

Watch the film here

Seru Morries, Principal Pharmacist, Ministry of Health, Uganda

“We have got civil society, government and the private sector sitting together on one table and discussing issues. As a government and as [the] pharmacy division, we are mandated to make sure there is good medicine, affordable medicine and quality medicine to society. We think MeTA will augment our work because this is our mandate to make sure people have affordable medicine. So we see MeTA not as a group that has come to take our work but to help us do our work better by engaging other stakeholders who hitherto were not engaging efficiently.”

Watch the film here 

Hear more MeTA stakeholders’s views at MeTAFilms