Today, health supply chains face new and unprecedented threats from global pandemic outbreaks that often occur in the world’s most vulnerable areas. One need not look far with the enormous impact the COVID-19 virus has had and is likely to continue to have.
Well-functioning country-wide supply chains are mission-critical in delivering the Universal Health Care (UHC) agenda and form the backbone of resilient health systems. In recent years, most African countries have integrated UHC as a goal in their national health strategies. While progress has been made, investments in the supply chains that sustainably underpin the principles of availability and choice to populations remains chronically weak, especially at the last mile. This study, funded by the UN World Food Program aims to develop a systems-inspired framework, capable of linking system actors and interventions to the health-related objectives for both UHC and pandemic preparedness and response and to understand resilience qualifiers to define leverage points as investment roadmap for stakeholders and disaggregate the connection between supply chain capacity strengthening and pandemic preparedness.
Towards Universal Health Coverage: Strengthening healthcare supply chains to mitigate the impact of epidemics - Phase 3
Digital Transformation, Humanitarian Logistics, Supply Chains