Supply Chain Management System (SCMS)

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Date of Operation: 2006 – 2013

Primary Implementing Partner: Management Sciences for Health

Other Implementing Partners (within Partnership for Supply Chain Management (PFSCM) worldwide):  John Snow, Inc. Research and Training Institute (JSI), Management Sciences for Health (MSH), 3i Infotech (3i), Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH), Crown Agents (Crown), The Fuel Logistics Group (Pty) Limited (FUEL), i+ Solutions, The Manoff Group, Inc. (Manoff), Northrop Grumman Information Technology, UPS Supply Chain Solutions (UPS), Voxiva (Voxiva)

Other Implementing Partners within Ethiopia: USAID | DELIVER, CDC, Clinton Health Initiative (CHAI), Population Services International (PSI), Federal Ministry of Health Pharamaceutical Fund and Supply Agency, Federal Ministry of Health HAPPCO, EHNRI, Save the Children, WHO, UNICEF, WFP, World Vision, UNFPA

Major Donors: PEPFAR, USAID

Regions of Operation: National

Goal: 

SCMS has operated in Ethiopia since November 2006 with the primary mandate of expanding logistics services to PEPFAR-supported programs and strengthening the supply chain activities for the national HIV/AIDS program in Ethiopia.

Objectives:

  • Support the Pharmaceutical Fund and Supply Agency (PFSA) in building capacity and systems for handling state-of-the-art quantification and forecasting activities, efficient procurement, direct distribution of all essential health commodities, and management information systems (MIS) for all aspects of the supply chain
  • Strengthen the public sector capacity for overseeing health facility inventory management and data quality
  • Conduct procurements to ensure availability of an on-going supply of needed medicines and other commodities to complement procurements by the Global Fund Project, Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI), World Bank and others.

Description:

In Ethiopia, 85 percent of the country’s 73.9 million people live in isolated rural areas, bringing significant challenges to HIV/AIDS testing and treatment programs. The country has made significant strides despite these obstacles. SCMS is one of several international partners working with the Government of Ethiopia to increase access to HIV/AIDS testing and treatment. In-country, the project procures laboratory supplies and equipment, opportunistic infection (OI) drugs, health system strengthening equipment and emergency ARVs for Ethiopia’s PEPFAR-supported health facilities. 

SCMS works with PFSA, a primary partner within the Ministry of Health (MOH) responsible for storing and distributing all health commodities to public facilities, by supporting the implementation of the Pharmaceutical Logistics Master Plan. In cooperation with PFSA and other implementing partners, SCMS has effectively scaled up staff to meet the challenges and realities of the national program. Between 2006 and 2012, the number of clients in Ethiopia on active treatment quadrupled from 50,000 to 209,700 and the number of PEPFAR supported treatment and testing sites has increased by more than six-fold, from 170 to 1020.

Key activities of the project include:

  • Antiretroviral therapy (ART) program: Supported the ART scale-up by graduating the ART supply chain from an informed “push” system to a “pull” system, implementing demand-driven logistics to minimize understocking or overstocking of commodities. The pull system was rolled out to all existing and newly initiated sites, with training provided to more than 3,000 pharmaceutical and facility store personnel.
  • Supply chain capacity building: Designed and implemented supply chain systems for ARVs and laboratory reagents and other commodities in Ethiopia, enabling a dramatic reduction in emergency orders at the facility level—with commensurate gains in distribution efficiency. SCMS procured equipment for the PFSA which will be used to deliver drugs and commodities to hospitals and health centers.  
  • Warehouse capacity building: Procured racking, shelving and other material handling equipment to increase operational capacity at warehouses and PFSA efficiency across the country.
  • Partner coordination: Coordinated with key partners, the Government of Ethiopia, donors and implementers for commodity security throughout the supply chain continuum—from forecasting and quantification to procurement, financing, and delivery.  
  • Averting stockout: Worked closely with the Ministry of Health, HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office, and CHAI in supply chain planning and monitoring to avert stockouts and shortages by responding with emergency orders of first- and second-line ARVs.

Expected Results:

  • Move from a “doing” role to a “coaching/mentoring" role to support PFSA in HIV/AIDS and national supply chain management
  • Strengthen the PFSA distribution system to ensure integration of other medicines and supplies for tuberculosis, malaria, family planning and any other appropriate public health commodities, toward “one public health supply chain”