BHB began supporting the DGDA’s retail medicine shop accreditation program in 2019, when the first round of 2,193 medicine shops was accredited. The second round was in 2021-2022, when 4,542 medicine shops were accredited. The third accreditation round, targeting 3,500 medicine shops, will take place in 2023-2024. BHB collaborates with local DGDA officials, leaders of medicine shop owners’ association and PCB to conduct the accreditation program on DGDA’s behalf. The program has a rigorous five-step process starting with pre-assessing retail medicine outlets and culminating in DGDA’s inspection visit to determine accreditation eligibility.
To meet the 3,500 targets, BHB will pre-assess 3,000 new medicine shops and include 1,000 or more previously assessed medicine shops that are further along in the accreditation process. To conduct the pre-assessment, BHB recruited a team of 10 aaccreditation aassociates who received in-person training on February 15. BHB’s Country Project Director, Professor Dr Abul Kalam Azad, opened the training, and amongst others, Md. Eyahya, Director, DGDA served as a resource person.
