The Mission for Essential Medical Supplies Company, (MEMS) is a faith-based not for profit registered company by guarantee, owned and managed by the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC) and Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT). MEMS was established in 2013 and has been operating fairly well until August 2019 when it ceased to exist because of a number reasons including but not limited to;
Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC) and MEMS Company are both owned by CCT and TEC. CSSC was fully involved in the process of establishing the MEMS Company. The Board of Trustees has mandated CSSC to be a care taker of MEMS and spearhead the processes of reorganizing the company. So far, CSSC has managed to secure support from USAID to develop the MEMS business plan. A consultant namely Project Last Mile (PLM) has already been engaged and the process to develop the Business plan has started. Procedures to finalize re-registration of MEMS Company are ongoing.
CSSC intends to use the experience of EPN and its members in developing MEMS business plans, operationalizing the company and also utilize the East Africa Pool Procurement Initiative. A church owned supply chain Company such as MEMS is still important in improving delivery of health care services in Tanzania.
Currently, the church-based lower level health facilities especially 102 health centres and 600 dispensaries still depend on private suppliers. Further, the church hospitals do not receive all medical supplies from the Medical Stores Department (MSD) as expected. They only receive between 40-60% of their requirements. The other remaining percent is outsourced outside MSD. The need for an alternative supply chain for church health facilities is still very high. The church facilities have been filling the gap by procuring medicines/drugs at private vendors other suppliers but the medicines are expensive and the quality leave much to be desired.