From 26th to 29th February 2024, Africa CHA Platform (ACHAP) held its 11th Biennial Forum in Abuja, Nigeria. The theme of this conference was The Journey to achieving Universal Health coverage in Africa; Experiences and Lessons from Faith Communities.
Members and key stakeholders of the platform engaged in discussions, sharing best practices and forging partnerships that were aimed in addressing the diverse health challenges facing the faith communities and implementing strategies that were driven towards the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
EPN was represented by Dr. Executive Director Dr. Richard Neci and Programs Office Dr. Judith Asin. In these discussions, EPN shared on innovative practices in ensuring continued improvement of healthcare and supply chain of quality and affordable products through establishment of pharmaceutical governing structures in the health facilities.
During the main conference, EPN moderated a session on Supply Chain innovations for Universal Health Coverage. Dr. Richard Neci who introduced the objectives and questions to be addressed, oriented the discussions on innovative solutions and strategies in supply chain management to improve access to essential healthcare supplies and achieve universal health coverage goals. Members JMS, MEDS and CHASL shared their innovations in improving warehousing performance management, capacity in quality control of medical products and the value of a microbiology Lab, and how CHASL navigated the administrative, financial and technical requirements to establish a Drug Supply Organization.
Successful examples of supply chain innovations in low-resource settings were shared, along with insights on how these models can be adapted and scaled up. Judy Asin also shared on EPNs experience and best practices from the Access Project on the Integration of multidisciplinary committees (DTC, AMS) to improve service delivery in health
During a preconference session hosted by IMA/CORUS, EPN had also the privilege to lead a breakout session on partnerships for consistent supply of affordable and quality-assured medical products. In this session, the gaps to medicines access, the contribution of functional committees and balance between quality and affordability in resource limited settings were discussed. The practical solutions were shared in the plenary.
EPN recognises the importance of partnership in ensuring continued and consistent supply of quality medicines to achieve UHC. IMA is in partnership with EPN since 2022 in Sierra Leone and Nigeria through the Smart Leveraged Church Supply Chain project to strengthen Christian Drug Supply Organizations (DSOs) capacity to ensure a consistent supply of affordable and quality-assured medical products as an essential element of a sustainable primary health care service delivery system.
