|
Back
Medicines
Transparency Alliance Launched
Successfully in Jordan
Under the patronage of HE the
Minister of Health for Jordan, Dr.
Nayef Al Fayez, the official launch
of the Jordan Medicines Transparency
Alliance (MeTA) took place on
Sunday, 31 May 2009. MeTA is a
multi-stakeholder alliance working
to improve access and affordability
of medicines for the one-third of
the world’s population unable to
access essential medicines due to
high cost or local unavailability.
Supported by the British Department
for International Development (DFID),
MeTA was piloted in 7
countries of different WHO
regions. MeTA initiative was
launched to test the hypothesis that
better transparency would lead
to better access to medicines.
MeTA scoping visits to Jordan were
conducted in 2007. A DFID / MeTA /
World Bank mission was conducted in
January 2008, and a short mission
memorandum was sent to MOPIC
(Ministry of Planning and
International Cooperation) and MOH
(Ministry of Health) Jordan in
February 2008 proposing to pilot
MeTA in Jordan. Following Jordanian
government's approval, five senior
Jordanian participants from
different sectors attended the
global official launch in London in
May 2008.
WHO is technically supporting the
work of MeTA in four of the pilot
countries: Kyrgyzstan, Ghana, Jordan
and Peru. WHO is represented in the
International MeTA Management Board
and on the Jordan National MeTA
Council.
In Jordan, the MeTA Council has been
formed with representation from
governmental and private sectors,
civil society organizations,
professional organizations, academia
and representatives from the World
Health Organization (WHO), the World
Bank (WB), and the Health Action
international (HAI). The membership
of the council was approved in July
2008 and met several times so far.
The council has finalized an action
plan and assigned three
committees to work on priority areas
namely: (capacity building in
civil society, evidence based
decision making for the rational
drug list and encouraging best
practices to improve rational use of
medicines) revisiting
existing studies and data on
medicines and identifying gaps
needing further study to improving
rational use of medicines,
developing and using medical
evidence in the drug listing and
monitoring process, and building the
capacity of civil society in the
area of pharmaceuticals.
Other priority areas identified were
finding better ways of monitoring
the effectiveness of medicines using
transparent measurement
criteria, getting information to
prescribers and patients on the
quality of generics, and helping
doctors improve their
prescribing habits.
WHO EMRO is committed to working as
a full partner with the MeTA Council
in Jordan.
More information about MeTA in
Jordan
More information about the global
MeTA initiative
|
