Date of talk or publication:
March 2008

Organization:
World Resources Institute

Description:

In Ghana, easily preventable or curable infectious illnesses, such as malaria and diarrheal diseases, are leading causes of death and exacerbate the financial hardships of many families. An inadequate public healthcare infrastructure is unable to cope with the magnitude of Ghana's infectious disease prevalence, leading many patients to seek health advice and treatment from the private sector. Licensed chemical sellers (LCS), authorized by the Ghana Pharmacy Council to dispense over-the-counter drugs, are present across Ghana and are often the first point-of-call for many Ghanaians, yet LCS themselves often do not have access to local suppliers of high quality medicines.

CareShop Ghana is a for-profit franchise of nearly 300 licensed chemical shops that are spread throughout the Greater Accra and surrounding regions. Ghana Social Marketing Foundation Enterprises Limited (GSMFEL) founded CareShop in 2002, with the intention of battling common infectious diseases in low-resource areas by improving supply chains and providing training to LCS through a franchising arrangement. GSMFEL, as the franchisor, generates revenue through the sales of inexpensive, high-quality drugs to franchisees. GSMFEL delivers these products directly to franchisees' doorsteps, and also provides franchisees with valuable health and business training, and branded materials.

Though franchisees report high satisfaction with GSMFEL's training and product delivery service, both GSMFEL's external business environment and internal factors present obstacles that have kept CareShop from becoming profitable. Access in-depth analysis of CareShop's challenges and successes to date by downloading the full-length business case study, CareShop Ghana: Improving Access to Essential Drugs through Conversion Franchising, linked below.