Written By: Lina Bader
October 18, 2021
As part of the FIP leadership team, I lead a number of strategic programmes that support the delivery of FIP’s mission to advance the pharmacy profession regionally and globally and, with our members, nationally. As the FIP lead for FIP-EquityRx, I would like to use this post to inform you about the growth of our equity programme of work and how this is impacting the FIP-EquityRx blog.
FIP DG 10 (Equity & equality) impacts us all. The “Equity & equality” goal calls for clear strategies to address inequalities in the pharmaceutical workforce, widen access and equity of pharmaceutical care services and access, as well as equity in global capacity in pharmaceutical sciences development. FIP-EquityRx is FIP’s programme on equity and equality in pharmacy — and is driving the implementation of DG 10. This work cannot be more important as we live through a pandemic that continues to reveal many long-standing inequities, while also exposing and contributing to new concerns for equity and equality across our communities.
In 2018, FIP-EquityRx became the overarching theme for FIP’s initiatives and work on gender and diversity. These initiatives focused on empowering women both within and beyond the workforce. In 2019, FIP announced the expansion of the scope of its equity and equality programme to extend beyond gender and diversity balances to equity in access to care and all that this encompasses.
Since the launch of FIP DG 10 in 2020, this expansion in scope resulted in an even stronger imperative to support equitable access to health care for all individuals, regardless of their social, demographic and health identifiers such as age, race and gender, and intersectionality , when multiple identifiers overlap.
One of the many activities of FIP-EquityRx includes a blog from colleagues around the world. In 2019 and 2020, the blogs focused on women in pharmacy leadership and their experiences. This year, we are expanding the scope of the FIP-EquityRx blog to reflect the wide reach of FIP DG 10.
Blog authors are now invited to address any aspect of equity and equality in pharmacy and health that is important to them. It could address issues affecting education, the workforce, pharmacy practice or the sciences, or cut across a number of areas. As personal blogs, the posts will still include insights from the authors’ own experiences that can serve to inspire our readers and members to reflect and learn.
We have also developed a new resourceful online site for FIP-EquityRx where the blog posts will be published from now on. Blog posts are commissioned from prospective authors, but we welcome your input. If you would like to write about equity and equality in health pharmacy and share your experiences and personal reflections, do contact us with your idea and we will be pleased to discuss it with you.
Email: lina@fip.org