The United Republic of Tanzania is one of 15 countries that is being supported by the Renewed Partnership, a collaborative initiative between the European Union (EU), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP), which aims to improve patient health outcomes, achieve health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and attain universal health coverage.

To achieve these goals, the EU/ACP/WHO Renewed Partnership aims to strengthen pharmaceutical systems and improve availability, affordability and use of quality-assured essential medicines for priority acute and non-communicable diseases.

The Renewed Partnership has been a key partner in addressing many challenges within the pharmaceutical sector in the United Republic of Tanzania. Such challenges include: low availability of essential medicines and health products in health facilities; inadequate funding; poor planning and coordination; inadequate tracking mechanisms and tools; and inadequate pharmaceutical human resources at the facility level.

In addition, there are substandard, falsified, and counterfeit as well as unregistered medicines and health products circulating in the market. The rational use of medicines continues to be a challenge as well and more efforts are needed to target both the public and health workers. Collectively, these challenges adversely affect the overall quality of care and performance of service provision at the district and national levels.

The Renewed Partnership focuses on the implementation of five areas of work (or results areas) and several activities have already been implemented and results achieved:

1. The WHO Country Office in collaboration with the John Snow Inc (JSI) supported the improvement of the medicines supply management system by training pharmacists and other health workers at the district level on the use of the electronic Logistics Management Information System (eLMIS) that is being introduced in Tanzania. The activity was done in both year 1 and 2. The eLMIS is intended to build the capacity at the district and national level to provide accurate and current demand and usage data of essential medicines to managers and other decision makers to assist in resupply, forecasting and monitoring of the pipe line.
2. Medicines availability and prices of 50 key medicines found on the current National Essential Medicines List for Tanzania (NEMLIT) were monitored using the WHO/HAI methodology. The survey took place in 108 rural and urban health facilities in five regions.
3. Capacity building of the Tanzania Food and Drug Authority (TFDA) staff in the documentation and communication of counterfeit medicines was implemented. The aim was to improve the quality of medicines and reduce the occurrence of substandard medicines in the market.
4. Technical support was provided to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) to review the local manufacturing strategy the Tanzania Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan of Action (TPMPA) 2014-2018 by a wide range of stakeholders. The main objectives were to build consensus through a multi-sectoral approach to promote domestic pharmaceutical industries to enable increase access to medicines and improve public health.
5. Support was provided to the Pharmacy Council to review two pharmacy practice regulations. This aimed at increasing quality of services provided within the practice of pharmacy.
6. Technical guidance was provided in Zanzibar to review the National Medicine Policy as per WHO guidance on development of national medicines policies.
7. Rational use of medicines by health workers was promoted by revising the Standard Treatment Guidelines for Zanzibar. In addition, a training of dispensers and prescribers from Zanzibar and Pemba districts on rational medicine use was done the following year.

The EU/ACP/WHO Partnership was initially started in 2004 and continued until 2010. The Partnership dedicated €25 million during this time to the strategic and technical support of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Island (ACP) countries in the development and implementation of essential medicines strategies. The Renewed Partnership took effect on 1 October 2012 with a budget of €10 million to boost the pharmaceutical system in the 15 sub-Saharan African countries and will continue until 2016.

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For more information, please contact:

Rose Shija Muhangwa
Email: shijar [at] who.int

Neema Kileo
Email: kileon [at] who.int