Introduction

The Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network

Mission

Facilitating the development of compassionate, just, and sustainable health care in and through the church health care system.

Goal

The support of healthcare providers to improve patient care through proper drug policies, management, and use, especially but not exclusively through church-related health institutions or programmes.

Network objectives

• Improve the capacity of healthcare staff and managers of institutions and programmes to rationally manage, prescribe, and dispense drugs, based on the Essential Drug Concept (EDC).
• Increase awareness of pharmaceutical issues and promote policy development in church health programmes.
• Expand and strengthen national and international networking.
• Increase the selection and dissemination of key information on the Essential Drug Concept and Rational Drug Use.

Network details

The Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network, formerly known as the Pharmaceutical Programme of the World Council of Churches (WCC), and Community Initiatives Support Services (CISS), was started as a programme in the then Christian Medical Commission (CMC) in the early 1980s. It now has a diverse range of members from North and South, comprising of Catholic and Protestant church-related donor agencies, low-cost essential drug suppliers, Joint Procurement Units and Christian Health Associations and health departments in Christian Councils and individual denominations. It works closely with other organisations, such as Health Action International (HAI), the World Health Organization (WHO), and Management Sciences for Health (MSH), as well as the International Network for Rational Use of Drugs (INRUD).

Currently, EPN has members in over 30 countries. Each year, members meet to discuss emerging drug, health, and policy development issues, and also to network. At country level, EPN has started to develop Country Focal Points (CFPs) who serve to facilitate information exchange and communication between country members and the rest of the network. CFPs also assist in organising country specific activities, and in mobilising churches in advocacy issues.

The Network currently employs three staff in the Secretariat and carries out its activities mainly through its members in the individual countries.

Funding

The Network is mainly funded by church-related agencies such as Misereor (Germany), ICCO (Netherlands), Bread for the World (Germany), and other such supporters. Over the years, it has also been funded by EED, Service Overseas, EZE, Christian Aid, Cordaid (formerly Bilance), and Caritas Italiana. A small income is generated from partial fees paid to courses organised by EPN and through fundraising, e.g. from WHO for specific training activities. Co-funding is also provided indirectly (in-kind) through members’ input of time, travel costs, out of pocket expenses, and other such overheads.

International Board

The International Board comprises of representatives from the donor community, main sub-regions (Francophone, Anglophone, and Newly Independent States), Christian Health Associations, and Joint Procurement Units. It also has a member from the WCC. It is responsible for strategic planning, leadership, and management of the Network. The Board meets three times a year.

Introducing faith-based drug supply organisations

The ‘private not-for-profit sector’, plays an important role in pharmaceutical supply services in many countries. Faith-based organizations (FBOs) are one of the major actors in this sector. Their share in health service and essential medicine supply provision varies considerably among countries, but in low-income countries they can provide up to 50% of curative services.

The results of the WHO/EPN study indicate that, among the 16 DSOs in Sub-Sahara African countries, five (31%) started their activities in the early 1970s, four DSOs (25%) were founded during the 1980s, another four (25%) during the 1990s, and more recently two DSOs (13%) have started their activities after 2000.

The main reasons given by church organisations for initiating DSO activities are to:

• Meet medicines needs of the population they are serving through faith-based health facilities
• Respond adequately to increasing stock-outs of the government medical stores
• Manage effectively pooled procurement for various church denominations within the same country
• Extend the work of churches to reach the poor and to provide them with health care services.

In general, DSOs have become more active in medicine procurement and distribution when the public drug supply system has increasingly failed to meet the medicines needs of faith-based health facilities. See Appendix 2 for a fuller description of the DSOs and the key results from the WHO/EPN study.