How Do We Get There? To achieve medicine security, communities need medicine accessibility, availability, affordability and acceptability. Communities without any one of these four components can be medicine insecure—but more commonly, these pieces intersect. And often, they’re underscored by individual poverty. Even currently medicine secure communities may be at risk of becoming insecure. Emergencies can disrupt medicine security—damaging pharmacies, disrupting supply chains and forcing survivors to flee their homes without medications. And as cases of non-communicable disease trend upward around the world, the need for consistent access to medicine and medical supplies for disease management grows, too. Click on the arrow and watch the video.
Building the Chain, Link by Link Americares continues to refine and improve every step of our medicine and medical supply chain to streamline ordering and inventory management. This includes custom technology at the Stamford distribution center, as well as software training for local partners, with the goal of adequate supply and less waste. In Liberia alone, Americares last year trained health workers at 16 sites in skills information and storeroom management and logistics to forecasting and ordering. In Tanzania and Malawi, improvements also included pharmacy repairs to keep medicine secure and ensure last-mile safety for patients. Americares also stocks emergency medicine and supplies in the U.S., Europe and India that can be delivered quickly in times of crisis. View the video from Ghana – showing how innovation strengthens the supply chain, even to the last mile.