Countries strengthen health supply chains with support from UNICEF and WHO

The WHO Regional Office for Europe and UNICEF Supply Division have extended their support to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Uzbekistan to optimize the performance of their supply chains to ensure the timely delivery of medicines and health products.

Countries in the European Region have repeatedly experienced supply chain problems, such as antigen shortages, stockouts and interruptions in immunization services (1) despite notable improvements over the past year. decade. The unfolding COVID-19 pandemic has further disrupted international, regional and local supply chains, undermining national response efforts and straining other critical and routine health interventions.

To overcome these obstacles, UNICEF and WHO, with the support of the Global Fund, are pooling their technical resources and expertise to support the health authorities of these 5 countries. Integrated teams will establish development needs in countries’ supply chain management systems, identifying and quantifying strengths, gaps and opportunities in their supply chain as the basis for organization and implementation improvement plans.

Assessment and strengthening of national supply chains

Acting as the lead agency for this exercise, WHO / Europe is leveraging its convening power to engage in multi-stakeholder consultations and conduct a participatory, government-led assessment of the health supply chain in using the UNICEF supply chain maturity model. The tool, which has been deployed in 21 countries around the world since 2018, enables health and other government officials to examine the performance of 13 critical operational and technical functions in the supply chain.

This exercise provides government decision-makers with a formal baseline for each area of ​​the supply chain, links targeted priority investments to evidence of need, describes partners’ technical assistance needs, and leads to development. national intervention plans to strengthen the supply chain that expand access to essential drugs and health products for all.

At the same time, the interventions will highlight the strengths of supply chain modeling with a clear opportunity to share best practices and promote cross-learning opportunities in the region.

The outcome will help ensure the successful transition of countries to financial and technical sustainability as they exit Global Fund support. It will also determine the level of preparedness and management capacity of countries for the deployment of COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines.

The evidence gathered through these assessments will be critical for these countries in directing and targeting the investments needed to achieve equitable, rapid and effective deployment of COVID-19 vaccines and defeat the pandemic.

By contributing to these global efforts through the Accelerator Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) collaboration, WHO / Europe and UNICEF are expanding the reach of the UNICEF Supply Chain Maturity Model to assess the resilience and emergency preparedness capacity of national supply chains to withstand future shocks, operate on a minimal scale, or increase people’s access to and uptake of health products and services.

The tool is currently available in English, French, Spanish and Russian.

The launch of an online version of the maturity model and associated guidelines for use on the UNICEF Agora learning platform will provide additional opportunities for governments to take ownership of the tool and review progress of the interventions deployed as part of their implementation roadmap.

This story is published jointly by WHO and UNICEF.

_{(1) Joint WHO / UNICEF (JRF) 2010-2019 data}