USAID Publication: Driving Last-Mile Solutions to Ensure Access to Public Health Commodities
USAID’s Global Health Supply Chain Program–Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) has published a cutting-edge new report, “Driving Last-Mile Solutions to Ensure Access to Public Health Commodities.” GHSC-PSM has worked for over 7 years in more than 30 countries in order to strengthen the supply chain and commodity availability to health workers at the last mile. Part of GHSC-PSM’s mission is to ensure quality health products are available to both clients and patients.
The goal of this report is to support supply chain decision makers, ministries of health, central medical stores, implementers, donors, and any others who could benefit from the lessons learned and utilization of last mile best practices. The report outlines interventions and activities that will specifically aid actors and systems at the “last mile” of the supply chain, including at the community level. There is a breadth of examples, from 18 different countries across Africa and Asia, as well as Haiti, on challenges faced and lessons learned through work with governments, local authorities, USAID, and other private-public sector partners in order to enhance the availability and quality of commodities. While the report is not focused on immunization systems specifically, it does include cases about vaccination and cold chain (particularly Chapter 3, which has a long case study on delivering COVID-19 Vaccinations in Namibia). Other lessons and stories will be relevant to immunization professionals as well.
Click on the link below to download the report and read more. Please share with colleagues and anyone else who may be interested!