Project profile — Strengthening of the Kinshasa Central Agency for the Purchase and Distribution of Essential Medicine

Results achieved by the end of the project (March 2014) include the following: 1) the availability of quality essential medicines increased from 50 percent to 75 percent in Kinshasa’s public health system; 2) CAMESKIN’s administrative and material capacities were built by expanding its storage space, and by training 82 pharmacists and pharmacy assistants in pharmaceutical management; 3) CAMESKIN expanded its distribution network from 59 institutional clients in 2011 to 96 in 2013; 4) the frequency of purchases from health centres and hospitals at CAMESKIN increased slightly from once every 1.86 months to once every 1.6 months; 5) CAMESKIN’s sales figure increased from $600,000 in 2008 to $1,076,342 in 2013 (85 percent of the initial objective of $1,200,000 at the end of the project); 6) a network was created for cooperation among pharmacists (involving CAMESKIN managers and health zone pharmacists) and contributes to sound management of daily medicine consumption in these zones, prevention of inventory shortages and better monitoring of inventory management by CAMESKIN and the Provincial Health Division; 7) CAMESKIN has been able to position itself on Kinshasa’s medicine market and serves as a model for the country’s other central distribution agencies. These results have helped to strengthen the health system and to improve access to quality essential medicines in Kinshasa Province.