FIP works to advance the profession of pharmacy so that people everywhere have access to the expertise of pharmacists and to medicines. Our activities include: working in partnership with other organisations,such as the World Health Organization, to improve global health; speaking for the profession on current issues, such as patient safety, through giving statements at the World Health Assembly; supporting our members (national professional organisations, scientific organisations, schools of pharmacy and individuals), publishing reports and guidance, and organising international congresses to provide the profession with an opportunity to share knowledge and experiences face-to-face.
FIP PROGRAMMES OF WORK
Antimicrobial stewardship
FIP supports pharmaceutical practitioners, scientists and educators, as well as pharmacy organisations around the globe in their efforts to minimise antimicrobial resistance (AMR). FIP is driving action through its Commission on AMR, which is comprised of pharmacy experts with international reach and diverse backgrounds. The Commission’s imminent AMR activities span education, policy and public health, with related work in the area of safety of medicines, and engagements throughout each of the World Health Organization regions. This work is in line with the ambitions described by FIP Development Goal 17 (Antimicrobial stewardship).
More information can be found here.
Disease prevention
This FIP priority programme aims to advance the role of pharmacists in the area of disease prevention strategies that enable people to remain healthy, functional and productive, leading to happier lives, stronger economic growth, and less pressure on health systems. Although this role is important for both communicable and non-communicable diseases, this FIP programme focuses on the prevention of infectious diseases through vaccination, the prevention of vector-borne diseases, and the prevention of other prevalent infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections.
A key element of the prevention programme is the role of pharmacists in improving vaccination coverage rates throughout the life course. This programme is primarily (but not solely) associated with FIP Development Goal 16 (Communicable diseases).
More information can be found here.
Equity and equality
FIP Development Goal 10 (Equity and equality) is one of the fundamental goals that directly contributes to our vision of a world where everyone benefits from access to safe, effective, quality and affordable medicines. The FIP EquityRx programme focuses on equitable access to health care for all individuals, regardless of their social, demographic and health identifiers, and intersectionality that exists across all these characteristics. The FIP EquityRx programme works across pharmaceutical practice, science, and workforce and education. Some notable workstreams include vaccine equity, workforce diversity and health literacy. FIP Women in Science and Education (FIPWiSE) sits under this programme to champion and enable women in pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacy education to achieve their fullest potential, and to attract female students and early career professionals into these fields.
More information can be found here.
The Multinational Needs Assessment and Surveillance programmes
FIP Global Pharmaceutical Observatory (GPO) effectively and efficiently collates and validates global data on pharmacy workforce and practice, and pharmaceutical science. The MNAP and surveillance programmes provide a framework for data-driven, evidence-led projects related to our member organisations and FIP priorities, supported and enabled by the GPO. Workstreams predominately deliver on FIP Development Goal 12 (Pharmacy intelligence). The various projects are tailored to meet the specific needs of FIP member organisations while aligning with broader regional and global health objectives of FIP.
The MNAP projects evaluate FIP members’ needs by assessing challenges and areas for development within the scope of pharmacy practice, science, education, and workforce development. By identifying these key areas, FIP can direct resources and projects towards addressing these needs effectively. The projects are most often framed within the context of the FIP Development Goals.
The surveillance projects focus on the systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of pharmacy-related data. This is important for the monitoring and understanding of the evolving trends and advancements in key areas of practice, education, and workforce. Through surveillance, FIP offers its members access to valuable data visualisations and interactive tools facilitated by the FIP Atlas, the FIP impact database, and development goals indicators.
By establishing and monitoring needs across nations and members and feeding into regional and global needs assessment, the GPO’s remit aligns to the vision for it to become a comprehensive and respected source of data and intelligence for the pharmacy workforce, pharmacy practice, and pharmaceutical science worldwide.
More information can be found here.
Humanitarian programme
The FIP Humanitarian programme highlights initiatives and activities led and supported by FIP and by pharmacists and pharmacy organisations across the globe in response to humanitarian crisis. The programme supports pharmacists and pharmacy teams involvement in managing access to medicines and health services in disaster and emergency settings. This programme also highlights the importance of interprofessional collaboration and its impact in humanitarian settings. FIP recognises the negative impact of crises in increasingly fragile environments and advocates that pharmacists have a pivotal role any humanitarian crisis.
More information can be found here.
Non-communicable diseases
The FIP non-communicable diseases (NCDs) programme aims to advance the role of pharmacists in the prevention and appropriate management of NCDs and in the promotion of the responsible use of medicines. This includes pharmacists’ clinical roles in the multidisciplinary healthcare team focusing on prevention and early detection of NCDs and on optimising adherence to medicines therapy regimens, particularly for poly-medicated patients. A particular focus is given to the five UN priority NCD areas (cardiovascular diseases, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, cancer and mental health), and common risk factors such as tobacco use, nutrition or stress. This programme includes the FIP Practice Transformation Programme on NCDs and is overtly linked to FIP Development Goal 15 (People-centred care).
More information can be found here.
Patient safety
Patient safety is a high priority for pharmacists across our profession, who are responsible for ensuring that when a patient receives and uses a medicine, it will not cause harm. On a global level, FIP works closely with the World Health Organization directly supporting its patient safety programme and has been closely involved in advancing and advocating global patient safety. FIP also prepares tools for pharmacists practising in different settings and countries across the globe. This work is in line with the ambitions of the FIP Development Goal 19 (Patient safety) and our contributes to the delivery of the development goal.
More information can be found here.
Primary health care
The FIP primary health care (PHC) programme aims to support and strengthen pharmacy to deliver evidence of impact in PHC in line with the World Health Organization’s Astana Declaration (2018). The programme supports countries and regions with PHC policies for enabling pharmaceutical policies and systems. It seeks to increase the knowledge and skills of the pharmaceutical workforce in delivering PHC and consolidate our programmes of work in a policy framework that is clearly aligned with the Astana Declaration and the WHO-UNICEF Operational Framework for PHC.
More information can be found here.
Provision and partnerships
The FIP provision and partnerships programme seeks to engage, develop and support FIP members’ professional development across all sectors and roles through the availability of quality programmes and courses that meet the needs of our members and organisations. At FIP, the quality of provision is demonstrated by alignment to quality criteria and is overseen by the FIP Consortium, who award the Seal accordingly. FIP provision is delivered in a number of ways including partnerships and collaborations between members and partners or developed and delivered by FIP directly. The provision programme supports the implementation and delivery of FIP Development Goals 3 (Quality Assurance) and 9 (Continuing Professional Development Strategies).
The FIP-UNESCO UNITWIN programme facilitates educational partnerships, networking, knowledge sharing and data generation with and for FIP’s education-focused members. More information can be found here.
More information can be found here.
Self-care and management of common ailments
This programme aims to leverage and support pharmacists' expertise, accessibility and trusted relations in the community to provide quality, evidence-based information and advice on self-care products and strategies to the public, to promote health literacy and to empower patients towards better health and well-being. In addition, the management of common ailments by pharmacists helps reduce pressure on general practice and emergency departments, thus contributing to more efficient, convenient and responsive health systems.
Self-care and the management of common ailments is a key area for advancing pharmacy worldwide, on par with growing global importance of self-care and patient empowerment in health as a key pillar of primary health care, health system sustainability and universal health coverage, as well as in meeting the World Health Organization triple billion objectives. The main FIP Development Goals linked to the self-care programme are DG 18 (access to medicines, devices and services), DG 14 (Medicines expertise) and DG 15 (People-centred care).
Under this programme, our work includes both advocacy of pharmacists’ role in advancing self-care and the management of common ailments, and supporting practice development in specific areas of self-care.
More information can be found here.
Sustainability in pharmacy
The FIP SustainabilityRx programme supports the implementation and delivery of FIP Development Goal 21 (Sustainability in pharmacy). The programme focuses on environmental, social, and economic sustainability in pharmacy, ensuring the profession is enabled and remunerated to play its role across all sectors to ensure universal health coverage. Sustainability as a concept in ingrained in global development and therefore FIP aims to fully engage all its constituencies and support delivery of concrete actions across them in this important area.
More information can be found here.
Transformation
This programme promotes the global transformation of pharmacy practice, science, workforce and education by supporting countries in assessing their needs and priorities and supporting them to develop needs-based strategies and co-created solutions, tools, mechanisms and resources for implementation.
The FIP Practice Transformation Programme on NCDs aims to provide tools and strategic support to FIP member organisations to develop and implement pharmacy services that can have a sustained positive impact in the prevention, screening, management, and treatment optimisation of NCDs for improved patient outcomes and health systems efficiency and sustainability. More information can be found here.