The USAID MTaPS Program celebrates a year and half of work in Madagascar

Antananarivo, June 13, 2024 – Since 2022, the United States Agency for International Development, through its Medicines, Technologies, and Pharmaceutical Services (MTaPS) Program, is supporting the Ministry of Public Health of Madagascar to strengthen the capacities of health workers to improve access to quality health services.

The goal of the global USAID MTaPS Program is to enable low- and middle-income countries to strengthen their pharmaceutical systems, which is pivotal to better health outcomes and higher-performing health systems. The program is implemented by a consortium of global and local partners, led by Management Sciences for Health (MSH), a global health nonprofit.

The End of Project Event for Madagascar took place on Thursday, June 13, 2024, in Antananarivo in presence of officials from the Ministry of Public Health, USAID, the General Directorate for Health Commodities, the Directorate for Pharmacy, Laboratories, and Traditional Medicine (DPLMT), and the Malagasy Laboratory for Medical Analysis (LA2M).

“The cooperation between the Malagasy Government and USAID, through MTaPS, is a critical step to improve real time decision making by facilitating the dissemination of best practices, experiences, and information between laboratories specialized in disease diagnostic.” – Dr Hajarijaona Razafindrafito, Health Office Advisor

To support and in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health, the DPLMT, and the LA2M, the USAID MTaPS Program contributed to the following achievements:

• Strengthening the process and the governance structure of the COVID-19 Response Mechanism fund from the Global Fund by redefining roles and responsibilities of involved stakeholders to better absorb these funds.
• Developing and approving the manual to manage laboratory commodities, a document designed to improve the availability of laboratory products and train staff members from the central to the district level on using it.
• Developing and approving Malagasy norms related to laboratory medical analysis, including guidelines related to laboratory activities, requirements for executives, and requirement for resource management.
• Developing and approving an action plan and standard operating procedures, following the assessment of LA2M laboratories, regarding their Quality Management System on ISO 15189 norms and their laboratory information systems (SIL).
• Supervising the implementation of the national strategic plan for the development of laboratories (PSNDL 2021-2025), a plan designed to improve the performance and the quality of laboratories at all levels of the health system.

The improvements supported by the USAID MTaPS program are important to strengthen the management capacities and best practices in laboratories in Madagascar and to improve access to quality health services. This work will help prevent epidemics and improve health outcomes of Malagasy citizens.