This advocacy campaign uses in-person events and information and communication technology (ICT) to demand action to eliminate "stock-outs", the term used when a pharmacy (in a medical store or health facility) temporarily has no medicine on the shelf. "Stop the Stock-outs" is calling on governments and health departments to end stock-outs now by: providing financial and operational autonomy to the national medicines procurement and supply agency; ensuring that civil society is represented on the board of this agency; ending corruption in the medicine supply chain to stop theft and diversion of essential medicines; providing a dedicated budget line for essential medicines; living up to commitments to spend 15% of national budgets on health care; and providing free essential medicines at all public health institutions.

 

Much of the emphasis of the campaign is on transparency and accountability in the supply chain, facilitated by ensuring that district health management teams are participatory and that monitoring of availability (and price) of medicines at health facilities is carried out. Having and sharing information about the duration which the medicine is off the shelves can - it is thought - fuel advocacy for 100% availability of essential medicines.

 

In addition to face-to-face exchanges that will be held throughout Stop Stock-outs, the interactive campaign website is a place where advocacy can be sparked and sustained. It carries regular features and updates on the campaign and its events, features case studies from members of the campaign community, hosts regular discussions on issues surrounding the campaign for essential medicines for all, disseminates the campaign statement, and includes a resource centre with downloadable materials to support spin-off activities.

Health, Rights.

"Access to essential medicines is a human right and a cornerstone of an effective primary health care system." - Stop Stock-outs

WHO defines essential medicines as "those that satisfy the priority health care needs of the population....Essential medicines are intended to be available within the context of functioning health systems at all times, in adequate amounts, in the appropriate dosage forms, with assured quality, and at a price the individual and the community can afford." At the World Health Assembly in 1977, governments made a commitment to ensure these essential medicines are available in public health facilities. Yet organisers say that today, over 30 years later, public health facilities in Africa have in stock only about half of a core set of medicines used to treat common diseases such as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, HIV, tuberculosis (TB), diabetes, and hypertension – all of which are among the highest causes of death in Africa. Stock-outs disproportionately affect the poor, and this is exacerbated in rural areas.