Department of Health and Human Services
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Every family planning program must have a good supply of contraceptives on hand at all times. Running out of contraceptives can lead to unwanted, and in some cases life-threatening, pregnancies and can do serious harm to a family planning program’s reputation and effectiveness. On the other hand, an oversupply can lead to wasted or damaged contraceptives. The need to keep the right quantity of supplies on hand is obvious, but how you do it is not. It is the contraceptive logistics system that (if working properly) assures that every service delivery point and warehouse in the system always has an adequate supply of all the necessary contraceptives and other supplies, in good condition. Contraceptive logistics is simple to understand yet somewhat complex to manage. Like all health care or distribution systems, a contraceptive logistics system has several levels. Each facility at each level needs to keep an appropriate quantity of supplies on hand at all times. The central level of the program generally orders contraceptives from the manufacturer or donor. Once they arrive, the contraceptive supplies travel from the central warehouse down through one or more intermediate levels (such as regional, provincial, and district warehouses), and finish up at the service delivery level where they are dispensed to contraceptive users. In many countries, the administration of family planning programs has been decentralized, so lower levels of the system are now responsible for their own logistics management. The goal of a logistics system is to ensure that every family planning client always receives the contraceptives she or he wants, and that they are in good condition and have not expired. In order to select, procure, and distribute the right quantities of the right contraceptives, managers of the logistics system must keep informed of the rates of use of each contraceptive and of the quantity of available supplies. This requires:
In recent years, a number of health programs and ministries have integrated their supply systems so that family planning supplies are now managed along with other health commodities. View an illustrated presentation on contraceptive logistics, or download the Microsoft PowerPoint™ slide presentation with presenters script. Technical AssistanceFor four decades, CDC's Division of Reproductive Health (DRH) has provided technical assistance to improve contraceptive logistics systems in developing countries. CDC currently provides limited contraceptive logistics management assistance. Interested parties can contact the USAID funded DELIVER project at John Snow, Inc. at http://www.deliver.jsi.com. This project provides contraceptive logistics technical assistance and produces publications on contraceptive management. In addition, FPLM conducts logistics training courses.
Pocket Guide to Managing
Contraceptive Supplies Division of Reproductive
Health's Demographic Research and Program
Evaluation Contraceptive Shelf Life and
Storage Conditions Problems
with Contraceptive Quality Dealing with
Damaged Contraceptives Lessons Learned from Contraceptive Logistics
Reproductive Health Epidemiology Workshop Publications on International Surveys, Reports, and Studies
Page
last reviewed: 2/20/08 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
