No product? No program!

Abstract

Clients should never leave a clinic empty-handed because the product they need is out of stock. Health and family planning programs can succeed only if the clients they serve have access to medicines vaccines contraceptives and other essential health products whenever they are needed. Many international programs focus on improving service delivery promoting demand and donating drugs and other health commodities which fill up port warehouses and central medical stores. But most programs overlook the need to improve the logistics supply chain to ensure that products move from central warehouses to the health facilities where they are needed. Worse well intentioned changes in health delivery—including health reforms such as decentralization or integration of services—can exacerbate storage and distribution problems and in some cases wreak havoc on once smooth-functioning logistics systems. Furthermore donor support for commodities is diminishing relative to needs especially for contraceptives and vaccines. Countries are adapting to this situation by accessing a variety of multilateral funding mechanisms to finance commodity procurements. In addition to traditional World Bank loans these mechanisms include the Global Drug Facility of the Stop TB initiative the Children’s Vaccine Fund and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria. (excerpt)