The ultimate purpose of medicines procurement is to support better outcomes through person-centred health systems.

With donor funding less certain, African countries are exploring whether market shaping can create more reliable medicine supply.

With PATH investment, AI can move procurement intelligence beyond national dashboards and into the hands of frontline health workers.

Kenya is turning to real-time digital procurement systems to reduce stock-outs, cut costs, and keep essential medicines flowing.

Buying antibiotics regionally could fix supply and protect stewardship at the same time.

Regional pooled procurement is emerging as a key response to fragmented medicine purchasing across Africa to improve prices and supply.

A growing number of countries are using open data platforms to make healthcare procurement more transparent. Yet real accountability depends on active civil society monitoring and whether procurement decisions translate into patients receiving the medicines they need. Fragmented healthcare procurement across Brazil’s 27 states affects access to essential medicines for millions of people. Photo: Wellington Tavares As one of the world’s largest government-run public healthcare

Procurement decisions shape far more than medicine supply: they influence whether patients access timely care and complete treatment.