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The Role of the Health Supply Chain in Facilitating Universal Health Coverage Across East Africa
Pamela Steele, Joanna Nayler, Chloe Curtis, Lise Cazzoli, Jonathan Odingo, Andrey Levitskiy
Improving UHC has been highlighted by the UN as part of SDG 3. This research adopts a broad view of health supply chains and shows how health supply chain management plays a critical role in achieving UHC. It aims to answers these questions: How is the health supply chain facilitating Universal Health Coverage in Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania? What are the health supply chain for Universal Health Coverage best practices that these countries have implemented, and what challenges are they facing?
1st February 2022
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Comparative Study of Pharmaceutical Waste Disposal in Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda
Sophia Iosue
As a report from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC 2011: 34) on hospital health-care waste management (HCWM) states, ‘Only too often, waste management is relegated to the rank of a menial task, whereas it ought to be valued and all actors in a hospital made to realize their share of responsibility’. Although the ICRC report focuses on hospital waste management, the principle of shared responsibility for waste management applies at all levels of the Health Supply Chain, includi...
22nd April 2021
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Covid-19 Health Supply Chain Impact – Preliminary Evidence from Africa
Joanna Nayler, Lakshmy Subramanian
Supply chain preparedness is crucial to overcome any challenges presented by the ongoing pandemic. This study aims to understand the impact of Covid-19 on health supply chains in Africa and the level of preparedness across the various levels. The study methodology includes a desk review of literature and an online questionnaire, which was circulated through multiple channels including the International Association of Public Health Logisticians (IAPHL) platform and the South-South Knowledge Network (SoSo...
16th March 2021
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Africa’s Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Chain and Logistics Readiness
Dr Lakshmy Subramanian and Joanna Nayler
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating human impact and exerted unrelenting pressure on pharma and healthcare supply chains. This study investigates the vaccine logistics and supply chain readiness of various countries, particularly in Africa, to support the immunisation program.
8th March 2021
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Better Enforcement of Anti-Corruption Measures is the Way Forward for Efficient Pharmaceutical Procurement Systems
Lakshmy Subramanian
Corruption is a multi-layered challenge and is not restricted to one level of bureaucracy. It pervades large parts of the state administration and has long-lasting impacts on a country. Failure to penalise the perpetrators creates a general disregard for existing laws. Corruption in procurement defeats the purpose of serving the citizenry and attempts to curb corruption by implementing anti-corruption measures into the procurement procedures can, therefore, appear optimistic in such a setting.
25th November 2020
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Mobile Technology for Data Collection in the Health Supply Chain: Case Studies and Shared Learnings from Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Pamela Steele, Priyanka Raj, Joanna Nayler
Data plays a critical role in the Health Supply Chain and has attracted increasing attention in recent years. The flow of data in LMIC’s is often hindered, and many countries are reliant on burdensome and more inaccurate methods of paper-based data collection. At the same time, mobile technologies are acknowledged as one of the most successful methods of data collection, and the use of mobile technologies is rapidly rising in LMICs; African countries have the fastest growing mobile market in the world. ...
11th November 2020
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Strengthening Health Supply Chain Performance through Robust Costing Methods and Cost-calculating Tools
Pamela Steele
The public sector is still in the nascent stage of linking Supply Chain impacts to its primary goal of effective and efficient health care delivery. Associating a cost to this Supply Chain is even more nascent, as international and bilateral donors, limited in their funds, now request their beneficiaries to show ‘value for money’ for their projects (USAID, GFATM) or ‘pay for performance’ (World Bank). Not surprisingly, the availability of calculating tools for costing the Public Health Supply Chai...
19th October 2020
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Human Resources for Health Supply Chain Transformation: Exploring Common Best Practices in the African Health Supply Chain
Pamela Steele, Andrey Levitskiy, Joanna Nayler, Dr Lakshmy Subramanian
Human resource management (HRM) is a critical component of an effective health supply chain that emphasizes the importance of human capital for successful Supply Chain Management (SCM) and customer satisfaction, citing the positive impact of strategic HRM on organizational performance. The present study aims to identify best practices in HRM and to understand if and how these are applied across health supply chain organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study is informed by the HRM theoretical framewor...
18th August 2020
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A Case for Local Pharmaceutical Manufacturing in Africa in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Pamela Steele, Dr Gamal Khalafalla Mohamed Ali, Andrey Levitskiy, Dr Lakshmy Subramanian
The successful experience of industrialized nations proves that health systems, when coordinated with technological development, can also generate goods and services that are crucial for economic development. Like many low- and middle-income countries, sub-Saharan African nations also aspire to develop their pharmaceutical industry by promoting access to affordable quality medicine. Many countries are taking restrictive measures during the current Covid-19 pandemic to secure adequate access to medical pro...
15th July 2020
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Developing a Sustainability Index for Public Health Supply Chains
Lakshmy Subramaniana, Constantinos Alexioua, Joseph G. Nellis J, Pamela Steele, Foyeke Tolani
There is little evidence of research on the sustainability of public health supply chains. Existing studies cover only the triple-bottom approach so there is a need to delve deeper to identify and quantify additional aspects. To this end, we developed a Supply Chain Sustainability Index which in addition to measuring the economic, social, and environmental footprints, also measures the stakeholder collaboration, health outcomes, and product/service and process quality initiatives.
2nd April 2020
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Evaluating Constraints and Prospects in Public Health Supply Chain: the Case of the Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Agency (EPSA)
Loko Abrham Bongasse, Mehari Tekesete Tesfazig, Goitom Gigar Abera, Tesfalem Adraro Angelo, Kalkidan Lakew Belayneh, Levitskiy Andrey, Steele Pamela, Tolani Foyeke
This paper presents the findings on supply chain constraints (or bottlenecks) identified by EPSA’s Admas Programme, launched by Pamela Steele Associates and its consortium partners in late 2018.
10th January 2020
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Aligning Health Supply Chain Maturity with Technology Transfer in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Pamela Steele, Foyeke Tolani, Lakshmy Subramanian
This is a study of the constraints on the introduction of technology in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) supply chains. Some of these countries do not recognise the absorptive capacity that must be in place to enable the diffusion of technology. In the absence of such capacity, major challenges can arise in a country after the technology transfer takes place. Therefore, to overcome this gap in the literature, we attempt to understand the role of technology transfers in the public health supply chains...
1st January 2020
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The Multi-Faceted Challenges of Health Technology in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Pamela Steele, Foyeke Tolani, Lakshmy Subramanian
Technology has emerged as an important tool to improve health outcomes by promoting better access to healthcare and essential medicine. However, many people lack access to health technology due to various challenges faced by low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The lack of technology can contribute to the deterioration of public health and increase the burden on already constrained health systems. This paper seeks to provide an overview of the mentioned challenges from a multi-disciplinary perspectiv...
23rd October 2019
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Interventions to Improve Access to Medicine in Developing Countries: Mapping WHO’s Building Blocks and Supply Chain Functions
Pamela Steele, Lakshmy Subramanian, Foyeke Tolani
Access to medicine remains poor and inequitable in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This is a complex and multi-dimensional issue calling for holistic solutions. Studies in this area focus on singular disciplines, highlighting one or two main issues; this paper seeks to consider this issue from a multi-disciplinary perspective. It first enumerates the supply chain bottlenecks which lead to poor access to medicine. Since access is dependent on a host of factors, it is critical to under...
21st June 2019
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Supply Chain Maturity in Frontier Markets
Pamela Steele Associates Ltd
Using the Frontier Markets Supply Chain Maturity Model to Improve Supply Chain Performance in Resource-Constrained Environments One of the challenges for supply chains functioning under extreme resource constraints is to find a relevant framework or model which applies realistic expectations for capabilities and performance and provides a common language for partners and stakeholders. Here we propose the Supply Chain Maturity Model as one such framework.
15th February 2019