Systems strengthening initiatives cannot be sustained without coordination and collaboration from country and regional stakeholders. USP facilitates collaboration among partners to encourage information sharing and partnerships that lead to sustainable health systems strengthening.
Our Approach
USP promotes South-South collaboration that facilitates data collection, information-sharing and leverages regional ties – these activities promote resource-sharing and harmonization. This encourages country and regional ownership of activities and supports sustainable strengthening of medicines regulatory systems.
- USP’s regional laboratories and regulatory staff manage existing networks amongst sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean (co-managed with PAHO). The African laboratory network is now being co-led by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), and expanding in scope and reach, to cover all African countries as part of the newly developed African Medicines Quality Forum (AMQF). The AMQF will continue to build technical capacity of laboratory and regulatory staff, while also playing an advocacy role to reduce the prevalence of sub-standard and fake medical products in circulation on the African markets.
- USP-Ghana serves as a Reference Center of Regulatory Excellence (RefCORE) for NEPAD, providing capacity building support and expertise to 11 Regional Centers of Regulatory Excellence (RCOREs).
- As one of two Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Centers of Excellence, USP is working to champion quality in the supply chain in the region.