Access to qualified pharmaceutical personnel remains a major challenge across many African countries, directly impacting the quality of healthcare delivery. The Ecumenical Scholarship Project (ESP) seeks to address this gap by strengthening local health systems through education, capacity building, and strategic deployment of trained pharmaceutical professionals.
This aligns with EPN’s effort to strengthen the capacity of personnel already in the health systems to provide quality services and help build resilient health systems. ESP is intended to contribute to increasing the numbers of trained pharmaceutical staff in church hospitals with the ultimate aim of improving patient outcomes through better access to and use of medicines. The scholarship support covers tuition and living costs for students enrolled in pharmaceutical studies, with a commitment to return and serve in their communities upon graduation.
2023-2026
The current project phase runs from 2023 to 2026 and is being supported by the Bread for the World. The students are from 9 countries, namely; Lesotho, Tanzania, DRC, Burundi, Chad, Cameroon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Niger. They are support through select number of EPN members;
Many regions in sub-Saharan Africa face an inadequate number of pharmaceutical professionals, compounded by under-resourced training institutions and weak medicine supply chain systems. This project was developed to respond to the urgent need for qualified pharmacists who can lead improvements in pharmaceutical services, antimicrobial stewardship, and access to medicines in underserved areas.