One year on: Successes, challenges and perspectives

ACCESS-SMC ACCESS-SMC is a UNITAID-funded project, led by Malaria Consortium in partnership with CRS, which is supporting NMCP-led scale up of SMC across the Sahel to save children’s lives. This 3-year project is supported by LSHTM, MSH, MMV and SUA. ACCESS-SMC provided nearly 15M SMC treatments in 2015, reaching 3.2M children under 5, and will provide 30M SMC treatments in 2016 targeting 6.5M children in Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and The Gambia.

ACCESS-SMC Objectives 2015: 14.7M treatments2016: 30M treatments  SP+AQ delivery and administration

Year 1 Achievements: Distributing SMC to ~3M children a month NB: Cycle 4 data from Mali and The Gambia not yet available

Year 1 Achievements: Achieving high administrative coverage (project)

ACCESS-SMC Objectives  Demonstrate effective and safe SMC implementation at scale  Elicit the costs of SMC and support supply chain improvements  Increase supply of QA SP+AQ and support for alternative formulations/molecules  Mass communication, SBCC & and advocacy

SMC market comparison 2015 vs Supply constraints not as significant as in 2015 Coordination of delivery schedules becomes a key responsibility of NMCPs

Other positive developments  Dispersible formulation of SP+AQ in the final stages of ERP- approval process. Options for 2016?  Second producer identified and likely to be providing additional supply for 2017  Donors and implementing partners increasingly supportive of the intervention

Coming challenges in 2016  Double the scope of the intervention in the target countries in 2016 – and at the same time improving quality of administration  Securing all the drugs > ensuring smooth transition to dispersible  Finalize the research work  Better communicate about the project and its impact

Beyond 2016  Uncertainties about funding: what beyond ACCESS-SMC?  Government ownership (beyond MoH/NMCPs): what financing strategy?  Cost-saving initiatives: the prospects for integrating interventions  Duration of SMC: key concerns and strategic implications