E-DRUG: Fellowship on Access to medicines for Eastern/Southern African CSOs
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Open Society Institute
Access to Essential Medicines Initiative
Law and Health Initiative
FELLOWSHIP IN ACCESS TO MEDICINES, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND HUMAN
RIGHTS
The Open Society Institute Access to Essential Medicines Initiative
(AEMI) and Law and Health Initiative (LAHI) are pleased to announce:
A 6-12 month fellowship program for civil society organizations in East
and Southern Africa to host fellows to work on access to medicines,
intellectual property, and human rights issues
Background
Over one-third of the world's population is unable to access essential
medicines. In Africa these figures may be as high as 50%. Many
challenges account for this dire situation. One of the primary
challenges is the high cost of medicines which are affected by patents
and other intellectual property rights that allow drug companies to
charge extremely high prices. In the past decade, we have seen new
mechanisms emerge that seek to facilitate greater access - unfortunately
to date, few countries have taken advantage of these flexibilities. At
the same time, we see increasing pressure on countries from key donor
countries and the pharmaceutical industry to enforce more stringent
intellectual property rules. This pressure is often exerted through
regional and bilateral trade agreements and in the recent introduction
of anti-counterfeiting legislation in East Africa.
Challenges in national procurement and supply management systems due to
complicated domestic legislation and non-transparent decisions also
result in patients not being able to access medicines for
life-threatening diseases at a local level.
In 2009, AEMI began funding a campaign to stop medicine stock outs in
Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. These efforts are ongoing
in 2010. Additionally, in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia, OSI has funded
efforts to push back the anti-counterfeiting legislation, so that access
to quality generic medicines is ensured for the future. AEMI and LAHI
have also collaboratively funded training sessions for law students and
activists on Access to Medicines and Intellectual Property at the
University of Pretoria and the University of KwaZulu-Natal and
anticipate funding a new course at Makerere University in 2010.
The purpose of the fellowship is to build on these efforts to both help
develop legal advocacy and access to medicines expertise at key civil
society organizations and to foster the development of a new generation
of activists interested in working in this area.
Arrangement
Civil society organizations in East and Southern Africa can apply to
host a fellow for either 6 or 12 months. A short concept note outlining
the work you propose for the fellow to undertake has to be developed and
submitted as part of the application process. The work should
contribute to the access to medicines programming already ongoing at the
organization. The fellow's work should not only focus on needed
research/analysis but also must include advocacy activities, including
the use of existing legal tools for advocacy to improve access to
medicines. Interested participants from the trainings listed above will
be invited to apply for the fellowship. Matches between the CSOs and
activists will be made according to interest, field of study, and
experience. The fellowship will begin in January 2011. Fellowship
support will be from $10-20,000 (US dollars) for a 6-12 month
fellowship. This budget must include the Fellow's salary, programmatic
costs for activities related to their plan of work and supervision costs
of the host CSO.
Possible fellowship themes
Possible fellowship themes could include (BUT ARE NOT LIMITED) to the
following:
Analysis of national level intellectual property legislation and
use of flexibilities to increase access to medicines, including advocacy
work to have the government issue a compulsory license.
Trade agreements - what is the government agreeing to? What
impact will this likely have on access to medicines domestically? How
can the negotiations be influenced (nationally, internationally)?
Anti-counterfeiting legislation - is it being introduced in your
country? Analysis of legislation and impact this will this have on
access to medicines? Developing and implementing strategies to counter
such initiatives.
Competition law - is this a mechanism to use in your country to
push back on pharmaceutical industry monopolies? How can the country
utilize this mechanism, including a plan of action?
Analysis of national procurement and supply management (PSM)
legislation including proposals for greater transparency. Which legal
tools could be used to pressure the government to improve PSM?
Shadow reports to human rights bodies that focus on access to
medicines and an advocacy strategy utilizing the reports and actions to
impact nationally, regionally.
Responsibilities
Civil society organizations hosting a fellow will have the following
responsibilities:
Develop a work plan in collaboration with the fellow that
focuses on increasing access to medicines through heightened legal
analysis and advocacy.
o Integrating closely the work of the Fellow with the activities
and mandate of the CSO - the legal work should complement work already
ongoing.
Identify an engaged Supervisor/Mentor for the fellow. The
experience should be a learning one for the fellow and, therefore, must
be accompanied by significant staff involvement and mentorship.
Involve and invite the fellow to related meetings and events.
Supply work station and communications.
Assist in arranging local logistics including visa, housing,
etc.
Dependent on the framework of the project and legal expertise
required, OSI might facilitate the involvement of an additional legal
advisor to the fellow and CSO.
Qualifications
The Civil Society organization should have the following qualifications:
Legally registered CSO with 5 or more staff employed
Experience in access to medicines work
Significant health policy advocacy experience, including at a
national level
Particular interest in human rights programming
To Apply
If interested, please send a concept note (of up to 5 pages), detailing
your organization's background and prior work on access to medicines and
outlining a vision for the fellow's work and the supervision arrangement
to Anna Segelman at asegelman@sorosny.org by June 30, 2010. All
materials should be submitted in English. A short list of CSOs will be
selected for interviews.
Anna Segelman
Open Society Institute
Access to Essential Medicines Initiative
Law and Health Initiative
asegelman@sorosny.org