The Medicines, Technologies, and Pharmaceutical Services (MTaPS) Program
The Medicines, Technologies, and Pharmaceutical Services (MTaPS) Program
Strengthening Pharmaceutical Systems
Working across countries in Africa and Asia, the USAID MTaPS Program has made significant progress in improving access to essential medicines and ensuring they are used safely.
In the Philippines, MSH trained over 3,000 health workers, enhanced pharmaceutical management systems across 330 health facilities, and supported the development of 20 key health policies.
By focusing on country ownership and sustainable interventions, MTaPS has made a lasting impact on the countries it serves and helps ensure these efforts can be carried on by local governments and partners for years to come.
Overview
Access to safe and quality medicines at an affordable price and their responsible use by all populations can help countries prevent maternal and child deaths, create an AIDS-free generation, and protect their communities from infectious disease threats. Further, ensuring appropriate use of medical products can help control antimicrobial resistance (AMR)—a growing global threat that is making infections harder to treat.
Funded by USAID and implemented by a consortium led by MSH, MTaPS aims to help low- and middle-income countries strengthen their pharmaceutical systems to ensure sustainable access to and appropriate use of safe, effective, quality-assured, and affordable essential medicines and pharmaceutical services. The five-year program builds on the work of its predecessor program, the USAID-funded Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) Program. As a core part of its work, MTaPS supports USAID’s efforts under the Global Health Security Agenda to combat AMR. These efforts are directed toward building countries’ capacity to optimize their use of antimicrobials and avert infectious disease threats, thus securing health nationally and globally.
The program’s approach to strengthening pharmaceutical systems is to:
- Improve pharmaceutical-sector governance
- Strengthen the national regulatory system
- Increase institutional and human resource capacity
- Increase the availability and use of pharmaceutical information for decision-making
- Improve pharmaceutical-sector financing
- Strengthen supply chain management
- Enhance pharmaceutical services, including building pharmacovigilance systems and improving pharmacy practices
Webinar: Health Workforce Development through the Lens of Sustainable, Locally Led Development
In this webinar, Management Sciences for Health (MSH) discusses country partnerships in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, focusing on how various health workforce interventions are taking a systems-approach to capacity strengthening in order to ensure that improvements last beyond the project cycle and are managed under the ongoing custodianship of local actors.
Identifying and Addressing Challenges to Antimicrobial Use Surveillance in the Human Health Sector in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Experiences and Lessons Learned from Tanzania and Uganda
Digital Tools for Pharmaceutical Systems
Francis Aboagye-Nyame
Program Director, MTaPS Program
Project Contact
Francis Aboagye-Nyame provides strategic vision and leadership to the $169 million, USAID-funded Medicines, Technologies and Pharmaceutical Systems (MTaPS) program, collaborating closely with USAID, country governments, implementing agencies, and partners on pharmaceutical systems strengthening activities to meet its goals. A thought leader on pharmaceutical management with over 25 years of experience, he was previously the Program Director of the USAID-funded Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) Program and guided the $244 million program’s efforts to strengthen pharmaceutical systems in over 40 countries.
Aboagye-Nyame also held senior leadership and management positions on the USAID-funded Strengthening Pharmaceutical Systems (SPS), Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) Project, and RPM Plus programs, including Technical Deputy Director and then Program Director of the $229 million SPS program. He has direct knowledge of country challenges—prior to joining MSH, he spent over 10 years with Ghana’s Ministry of Health, serving as a Deputy Program Manager of the Ghana National Drugs Program, a five-year, $8 million pharmaceutical systems strengthening project and the Head of the Procurement Unit of the Ghana Ministry of Health.
Aboagye-Nyame holds an MSc in pharmaceutical analysis and quality control and an MBA in finance. He is a fellow of the West Africa Postgraduate College of Pharmacists, and the Ghana College of Pharmacists.
Donors & Partners
Donors
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Partners
The African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD)
Boston University
FHI360
International Law Institute-Africa Centre for Legal Excellence (ILI)
Overseas Strategic Consulting
Results for Development