Réseau Pharmaceutique Œcuménique (EPN)

The 2004 Multi-Country Study for faith-based drug supply organizations (DSOs) conducted by EPN in collaboration with WHO showed that DSOs customers were generally pleased with the services provided. However one area that needed to be improved on was in drug distribution and delivery.

To improve on this situation, the EPN secretariat commissioned a study to be conducted in ten DSOs in Cameroon, DRC, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. This study was done in order to identify ways for the DSOs to improve their distribution services. A feedback meeting to discuss the findings and recommendations in this report will take place from 13th – 17th August 2007 in Lagos, Nigeria.

The DSO project was developed by representatives of 16 DSOs in a participative workshop setting, in June 2004, in Nairobi, Kenya.

View or download the DSO project document [.pdf 150Kb] [.doc 441Kb]

The participants of the WHO/EPN Multi-country Study met for a feedback meeting to review the study findings and identify ways forward. Working together, they identified priority steps to increase their sustainability and capacities.

• Multi-Country Study of Medicine Supply and Distribution Activities of Faith-Based Organizations in Sub-Saharan African Countries [.pdf 2.09Mb - WHO/PSM/PAR/2006.2]

This is a joint WHO/Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network (EPN) publication which reports on a descriptive, comparative multi-country research project on the of 16 EPN member faith-based drug supply organizations (DSOs) and their contribution to medicines supply in 11 Anglophone and Francophone sub-Saharan African countries in 2003. The study involved structured assessments on key functions of these organizations' supply, storage and distribution systems.