Improving Primary Care for the Poor by Leveraging Drug Sellers at Scale: Tanzania’s Accredited Drug Dispensing Outlets Program: Blog Posts

Reformed Drug Shops Can Widen Access to Healthcare

June 17, 2015
[A woman and child visit an accredited dispenser in Tanzania.] {Photo credit: MSH staff}

There are ways to make informal outlets fit for quality care in poor areas, say Jafary Hassan Liana and Martha Embrey.

Gates Foundation Delegation Visits Tanzania Accredited Drug Dispensing Outlets Program

September 10, 2014
[Gates Foundation delegates visit an Accredited Drug Dispensing Outlet in Tanzania.] {Photo credit: Jafary Liana/MSH.}

Dr. Trevor Mundel and other senior staff of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation traveled to Tanzania this summer to see first-hand the successes of Accredited Drug Dispensing Outlets (ADDO). The ADDO program, which began in 2001, grew out of the need to transform the duka la dawa biridis—unlicensed retail drug shops—into profitable, government-accredited drug dispensing outlets that supply quality medicines and services to underserved populations in Tanzania.

Providing Access to Medicines and Health: A Conversation with Two Women Accredited Drug Dispensing Outlet (ADDO) Owners - Part 2: Meet Germana

September 20, 2013
[Germana (right), ADDO owner and dispenser in Kipara Mpakani Village with full-time accredited dispenser (left).] {Photo credit: Jafary Liana/MSH}

In developing countries, a community medicines shop often serves as the first point of contact for health care. Empowering the drug shop owner and dispenser to provide safe, quality medicines, and referrals to a health facility for more complex care, is key to improving maternal and children’s health in rural areas.

Providing Access to Medicines and Health: A Conversation with Two Women Accredited Drug Dispensing Outlet (ADDO) Owners - Part 1: Meet Audensia

September 20, 2013
[Audensia Batholomew shares her path to accreditation as an drug shop outlet owner and dispenser with Dr. Suleiman Kimatta.] {Photo credit: Jafary Liana/MSH}

In developing countries, a community medicines shop often serves as the first point of contact for health care. Empowering the drug shop owner and dispenser to provide safe, quality medicines, and referrals to a health facility for more complex care, is key to improving maternal and children’s health in rural areas.