Bringing Accredited Drug Shops to Africa and Beyond

Informal retail medicine shops are the first point of care for millions of people in low- and middle-income countries, though the medicines they sell are often of poor quality, costly, or even falsified. More than 20 years ago, MSH teamed up with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the owners and operators of these shops, many of which are women-owned, in accrediting, regulating, and expanding their businesses. Starting in Tanzania—and now in Bangladesh, Liberia, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zambia—these shops, are improving the quality and availability of medicines, the community’s use of those medicines, and referrals to health clinics. The ADDOs model is designed based on extensive stakeholder engagement and uses a systems-thinking approach to consider patient and consumer needs and protection, commercial interests of owners, and government regulatory concerns.