A three-day meeting was held in Blantyre, Malawi (13th–15th March 2006) in order to return the results of the maximizing access to essential medicines baseline study (carried out by EPN in May 2005) and to look at ways forward.

Executive summary of baseline survey research in Ghana

Research for the ‘EPN guidelines’ baseline survey was carried out in Ghana in August–October 2005. This report of results provides the baseline for compliance with the ‘EPN guidelines’ in Ghana, and respondents represent over 2,545 beds and 694,500 outpatients. It is a statistically sound report for Catholic health services in the southern and central regions of Ghana (only 8% of respondents are from northern facilities).

A feedback meeting was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from 17th–19th July 2005, as part of work to increase the capacity of church leaders and church-related health services to respond to the massive challenge of HIV/AIDS treatment. The results of research undertaken in Burkina Faso in June 2005 to identify starting points was fed back to a group of 45 people from churches, church health services, NGOs, and government organisations.

Executive summary of starting point analysis research in Burkina Faso

This report presents the summary of the findings and the recommendations resulting from the starting point analysis research carried out in Burkina Faso in June 2005. Work included a desk review, 10 focus groups, and 26 key informant interviews. Locations included: Ouagadougou, Bobo-Dioulasso, Koudougou, and Yako.

Executive summary of baseline survey research in Malawi

In Malawi, in May 2005, researchers from five countries were trained in the use of the baseline survey tools for the EPN Access to Medicines project (in order to carry out work in Cameroon, Ghana, Malawi, Togo, and Tanzania), and undertook fieldwork to complete the baseline survey for Malawi.

A feedback meeting was held in Kigali, Rwanda, from 15th–17th February 2005, as part of work to increase the capacity of church leaders and church-related health services to respond to the massive challenge of HIV/AIDS treatment. The results of research undertaken in Rwanda in June/July 2004 to identify starting points was fed back to a group of 34 people from churches, church health services, NGOs, and government organisations.

A feedback meeting was held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 9th–11th February 2005, as part of work to increase the capacity of church leaders and church-related health services to respond to the massive challenge of HIV/AIDS treatment. The results of research undertaken in Kenya in May 2004 to identify starting points was fed back to a group of 42 people from churches, church health services, NGOs, and government organisations.

Activities for Phase 1 of the EPN Access to Essential Medicines project are:

• To support the development of the project and draw up and prioritize a list of guidelines and indicators for those guidelines to be used in the project.
• To carry out a baseline survey of existing compliance with the EPN guidelines, initially in six countries, Malawi, Ghana, Uganda, Togo, Cameroon, and Tanzania (see below for the survey tools) .
• To present results to members and partners in-country and to a wider audience.