ADDO Program Goal

The aim of ADDO Program is to ensure that more than 80% of rural and peri-urban areas in Tanzania Mainland have an opportunity to purchase quality assured basic medicines from a well-regulated and properly operated private medicine outlets manned by trained personnel by 2010.

Specific Objectives

The program has the following objectives:

• Improve the quality of medicines that people buy from drug sellers.
• Increase the availability of essential medicines throughout the country.
• Improve the quality of dispensing services from both technical and consumer perspectives.
• Make essential medicines and pharmaceutical services available affordable to people in the rural and peri-urban areas. Affordability is inferred from the fact that with adequate regulatory service the prices of medicine are likely to be stable as there will be no or less distortion of the market practices.

Key Program elements

• Sensitization and mobilization of stakeholders on ADDO Program
• Mapping and preliminary pre-accreditation inspections
• Training of ADDO drug dispensers, owners and inspectors
• Accreditation of drug outlets
• Supervision and inspection
• Monitoring and evaluation

Achievements

The first ADDOs were launched in Ruvuma by the Minister for Health in August 2003. Evaluation of the pilot project revealed a significant improvement in access to quality medicines. The success was a result of support from the central and local government authorities and other stakeholders (public and private). The specific achievements as compared to baseline information obtained in a survey conducted by SEAM in 2001 are outlined below:

• Increased community access to quality, safe and effective drugs: There were less than 2% unregistered drugs in the market at end line evaluation as compared to 26% at baseline survey in the pilot region.
• Improvement in rational drug use through adherence to requirements for dispensing prescription drugs. This was evidenced by the finding that only 14% could dispense antibiotics for treating Upper Respiratory Tract Infection as compared to 39% at baseline survey.
• All 210 ADDOs in Ruvuma are manned by certified dispensers trained in basic drug dispensing.
• A change in medicines-taking behavior through good dispensing practices and patient counseling.
• ADDO contributed to malaria and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment through improving access to insecticide treated nets (ITNs), condoms, antimalarials, and drugs for opportunistic infections. Furthermore, they were found to be important centers for provision of health education
• Improvement in inspection of drug outlets by ward and district  inspectors
• Improvement in documentation and record-keeping 
• Improvement in compliance to laws regulating pharmaceutical businesses

After successful piloting in Ruvuma, the government decided to roll out the program to other regions of Tanzania.