Over the past seven years, Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) has been the backbone of HIV/AIDS programs worldwide, distributing over USD $1 billion worth of essential medicines (e.g., antiretrovirals) and other health commodities to various countries around the world. In fourteen African countries, SCMS has contracted local vendors to supply commodities valued over USD $100 million. The WDI helped document the impact of the SCMS program on local business and economies in four countries — Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia — and developed a white paper on lessons learned and accomplishments achieved thus far.
Vaccines save millions of lives each year and are among the most cost-effective health interventions available. However, one in five children are still without access to vaccines, resulting in an estimated 1.5 million child deaths each year and tens of thousands of permanent disabilities from vaccine-preventable diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia. WDI is partnering with VillageReach to understand how the implementation of a mechanism to improve accountability of vaccine program staff in three provinces in Mozambique can help enhance vaccine supply chain performance. This project will be used to inform and improve public sector vaccine delivery in other regions of Mozambique, as well as other countries.
WDI reviewed key supply chain management constraints and the effectiveness of current approaches to strengthen supply chain operations from a systems perspective, including the use of the private sector, and developed a comprehensive options analysis and benchmarking packages.
WDI is implementing research in Kenya and Benin to identify the structural and operational costs associated with the distribution of key products used in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of malaria including long lasting insecticide-treated bed nets (LLINs), rapid diagnostics tests (RDTs), and artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs). Analysis of in-country costs will be used to develop an extrapolative model. The model may be used by countries to more accurately estimate and budget for the costs of using the public sector health system to procure, deliver, and monitor the quality of key malaria products.
Global health agencies are increasingly turning their attention to the critical area of supply chain management for health products in developing countries. While they have made many large investments, a clear and sustainable long-term strategy is needed to address some of the root causes of supply chain underperformance. Solutions will focus on the long-term transformation of country supply chains to support global health goals. Developing a more strategic view of supply chains in the future will enable today’s supply chain investments to be better prepared for future demand, financing and supply scenarios.
This project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, focused on:
The success of results based financing (RBF) programs depends on reliable and continuous supply of affordable, high-quality medicines and other health commodities. Designers of RBF programs have limited information regarding supply chain bottlenecks and options to improve the flow of commodities. RBF program designers need an independent assessment of the structure, functioning, information flows, and incentives in the supply chain for the country implementing the program. This project developed a standardized assessment tool to capture the structure of the supply chain for RBF programs, its actors, their roles, key barriers and options for improvement. Portraying this information in a standardized format allowed Results Based Financing project designers to have a common basis of understanding and comparing performance across programs.