Strengthening TB and AIDS Response – Eastern Region (STAR-E)

2009–2014

Strengthening TB and AIDS Response – Eastern Region (STAR-E) is a five-year USAID-funded project being implemented by MSH, along with its partners: Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC), National Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda (NACWOLA), Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU), Resources for Policy Exchange (RPX), and Liverpool Associates in Tropical Health (LATH).

The goal of the STAR-E project is to empower the communities in Eastern Uganda to respond effectively to the challenges posed by the HIV & AIDS and Tuberculosis (TB) epidemics by:

• preventing new infections of HIV and TB,
• treating, caring, and supporting those infected and affected by HIV and TB, and
• mitigating the health and social impacts of the HIV and TB epidemics. 

Working closely with the Ministry of Health of Uganda and through District Health Management Teams, District Councils, health facilities, and communities, the project's general objective is to increase access to, coverage of, and utilization of quality comprehensive HIV/TB prevention, care, and treatment services within district health facilities and their respective communities. 

The project works in 9 districts (Busia, Butaleja, Budaka, Pallisa, Bududa, Kapchorwa, Bukwo, Sironko, and Mbale) covering a total population of just over 2.2 million. 

A second component of the STAR-E project is the Lot Quality Assurance Survey (LQAS), which focuses on promoting use of Lot Quality Assurance Sampling methodology at National and District levels and amongst USAID funded implementing partners supporting social services. 

Read more information, specifically about LQAS.

STRIDES for Family Health

2009-2014

STRIDES for Family Health, a USAID funded program in Uganda —implemented by MSH in partnership with Jhpiego, Meridian International, and the Ugandan organizations Communication for Development Foundation and the Uganda Private Midwives Association—works with the Ministry of Health, districts, their communities, local private organizations, and individual private providers in up to 15 districts to increase contraceptive use and healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy (HTSP), decrease maternal and child mortality, and create a scalable nationwide intervention by the year 2014. Strong emphasis will be placed on the long-term impact and sustainability of activities well beyond the project end date. To that end, all performance-based agreements, whether with the public or private sector, reflect STRIDES' goal to forge strong partnerships between both sectors. Indeed, STRIDES believes that only when such partnerships exist and function, sustainability of interventions can be achieved.

MEASURE Evaluation

2008–2013

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The MEASURE Evaluation project, which began in 1998, is USAID’s flagship Monitoring and Evaluation project and was established based on the premise that generating demand for and improving the use of data in policy formulation, program planning, monitoring and evaluation improves health systems which in turn affects health outcomes. The project is now in Phase III and is led by the University of North Carolina. In addition to MSH, the partners include Futures Group, JSI, Macro International , and Tulane University. MSH provides capacity building in the area of organization and leadership development to enhance sustainability using MSH’s virtual and other tools and also offers direct support to country M&E teams.

Supply Chain Management System Project

2006–2008

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SCMS (the Supply Chain Management System) supplies lifesaving medicines to HIV & AIDS programs around the world and is led by the Partnership for Supply Chain Management (a nonprofit organization established by MSH and JSI). The 17 SCMS international partners are hands-on and actively work to strengthen supply chains, enabling the scale-up of HIV & AIDS treatment in developing countries. SCMS is funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to help deliver an uninterrupted supply of high-quality, affordable products including: antiretroviral drugs; drugs to treat opportunistic infections such as tuberculosis; and drugs and supplies for palliative and home-based care, HIV rapid test kits, and laboratory equipment. The project focuses on improving forecasting (to determine what drugs are really needed), aggregating demand and negotiating lower prices, and bringing the delivery mechanism closer to the point of use through regional warehouses. SCMS can work anywhere in the world, but is initially focused on the 15 Emergency Plan focus countries.

Strengthening Pharmaceutical Systems (SPS) Program

2007–2012

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Strengthening Pharmaceutical Systems is a follow-on to the Rational Pharmaceutical Management (RPM) Plus Program. MSH is pleased to announce that the US Agency for International Development has awarded us the Strengthening Pharmaceutical Systems (SPS) Leader with Associates Cooperative Agreement. SPS will focus on four key results:

• Improve governance in the pharmaceutical sector
• Strengthen pharmaceutical management systems to support public health services
• Contain the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance
• Expand access to and improved use of essential medicines

The five-year, $147.5 million cooperative agreement is led by Dr. Douglas Keene as Program Director, Dr. Sameh Saleeb and Dr. Francis Aboagye-Nyame as Deputy Directors. To help meet goals relating to the key result areas, the SPS Program is building on the successes of RPM Plus while expanding the range of technical areas to include financing, pharmacovigilance, pharmaceutical care, integration of new health technologies, and increased use of the private sector, among others. MSH will accomplish this enhanced program of activities by collaborating with a number of new partner organizations. The SPS core partner team includes:

• BroadReach Healthcare
• Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network
• The Lewin Group
• LMI Government Consulting
• University of Washington Department of Global Health
• WHO Collaborating Center in Pharmaceutical Policy: Harvard University/Boston University

In addition to the core team, MSH is joined by a select group of organizations that will serve as specialized resources for SPS. These organizations include:

• African Medical and Research Foundation
• American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
• Euro Health Group
• Infectious Disease Institute at Makerere University
• Joint Commission International
• London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

As we work toward the overall goal of SPS, the SPS team is striving to advance the science and "art" of strengthening pharmaceutical management systems. The SPS Program provides a great opportunity for MSH and USAID to continue supporting developing countries in their quest to increase access to essential medicines and facilitate the scale up of vital treatment programs.

International Network for Rational Use of Drugs Initiative on Adherence to Antiretrovirals (INRUD-IAA)

2006–2011

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The International Network for Rational Use of Drugs (INRUD) was established in 1989 to design, test, and disseminate effective strategies to improve the way drugs are prescribed, dispensed, and used, with a particular emphasis on resource poor countries.

Launched in September 2006, the INRUD-IAA initiative is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The objectives of the five-year initiative are to—

• Develop and validate a set of indicators that can be used to monitor adherence to ART
• Investigate adherence rates and determinants for these rates for ART programs and individuals in two target countries
• Pilot interventions to improve adherence in individual patients and in programs in two countries
• Establish the process needed for national AIDS control programs to scale-up successful interventions as part of national policy in the two countries
• Work with the other three countries in the region to develop national adherence policies and implement interventions to improve adherence

East African Drug Seller Initiative (EADSI)

2007–2010

The East African Drug Seller Initiative (EADSI) will create a sustainable model to replicate and scale up private-sector drug seller initiatives based on Tanzania's accredited drug dispensing outlet (ADDO) project. The resulting model will be evaluated in one pilot region compared to a control region and experiences and a finalized model will be made available to help other countries facing similar challenges in increasing access to essential medicines. The initiative addresses the problem of people in developing countries seeking advice and medicines from retail drug sellers who are largely untrained and unregulated. As a result, customers are less likely to receive quality pharmaceutical care and products or to be counseled on proper medicines and their correct doses.

The initiative’s goals include:

• Developing a regional strategy to support the implementation of a stainable private-sector drug seller initiatives.
• Strengthening the Tanzania ADDO model to facilitate scaling up and sustainability.
• Developing a plan to replicate the ADDO model to scale in a second East African country (Uganda) and demonstrating the adapted model in one district (Kibale).
• Creating and disseminating an ADDO “tool kit” to facilitate adoption and adaptation of the approach by other countries.

The EADSI project in Uganda recently celebrated the launch of Accredited Dispensing Outlets in the western district of Kibaale.

 

Rational Pharmaceutical Management Plus Program

2000–2008

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MSH provided technical guidance and assists in strategy development and program implementation both in improving the availability of safe, effective health commodities of assured quality and cost—pharmaceuticals, laboratory diagnostics, vaccines, supplies, and basic medical equipment—and in promoting the appropriate use of these commodities in the public and private sectors at the community level, with special focus on managing pharmaceuticals essential for maternal, newborn, and child health.

Through RPM Plus, MSH conducted a comprehensive assessment of drug management for childhood illness in Uganda. The data revealed strengths and weaknesses of the national pharmaceutical supply system and indicated a need for capacity building in all areas of supply chain management, rational medicine use, and logistics information systems. RPM Plus also conducted an assessment of the capacity of the central drug supply system in Uganda for the World Bank. The US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) solicited RPM Plus support to strengthen the distribution of insecticide-treated bednets (purchased with Global Fund monies) to vulnerable populations, to assist with the handling and distribution costs of PMI-procured first-line malaria medication, and to help manage Uganda’s nationwide roll-out of the same medication (WHO-recommended artemisinin-based combination therapy).

Basic Support for Institutionalizing Child Survival (BASICS)

1999–2011

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As a technical assistance partner for newborn and child health to the USAID Bureau for Global Health, the Basic Support for Institutionalizing Child Survival (BASICS) Project develops and implements strategies to reduce preventable infant and childhood deaths in the developing world. MSH works as a partner in BASICS, which began its third phase in October 2004. Under this indefinite quantity contract (IQC), BASICS assists USAID/Washington Bureaus, USAID field missions, host-country governments, donor agencies, NGOs, PVOs, research institutions, and the private sector to scale up and increase the use of newborn and child health and nutrition interventions by families, communities, and health systems. Since 1993, BASICS has worked to achieve substantial improvements in coverage and to expand effective newborn and child health interventions. BASICS focus areas include newborn health, essential nutrition actions like vitamin A supplementation, immunization, integrated management of childhood illness, treatment of diarrhea and pneumonia, and malaria control. In addition to strengthening the delivery of basic newborn and child health services, BASICS has expanded its technical scope to include pediatric HIV & AIDS, birth spacing, and child survival and nutrition in complex humanitarian crises. BASICS areas of expertise include assistance to countries on comprehensive strategies or selected interventions for newborn and child health, building partnerships, delivery of quality newborn and child health services, community-based treatment and private sector approaches to expand access to services, and capacity building and training.

In Uganda, BASICS supports Ministry of Health (MOH) activities to revitalize and strengthen routine immunization services and to accelerate the MOH's integrated management of childhood illness program by focusing on key family practices related to disease prevention, appropriate care seeking, appropriate home care, and growth promotion.

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