Supply Chain Evolution: Introduction to a Framework for Supply Chain Strengthening of Developing Country Health Programs

A “Supply Chain Evolution Model” demonstrates to countries how to implement and sustain an integrated supply chain. It illustrates how public health systems can move through a process management trajectory that leads to improved supply chain management capacity, from ad hoc to organized to integrated to extended stages. In the earlier stages, health system managers have little understanding of what their supply chain system looks like, how it is operating, and how to manage various supply chains as one cohesive system that interacts with its broader environment. As MOHs and donor partners coordinate and carry out efforts to define, measure, and manage public health supply chain processes, those supply chains can evolve. In the later stages, the flow of information and visibility into supply and demand improves at all levels of the supply chain. Roles and responsibilities of personnel are clarified and validated. In the integrated and extended stages, health system managers increasingly understand how their system operates, ways to use resources more efficiently, how to manage and align supply chain actors to achieve common goals, and, ultimately, ways to interact more effectively with the broader environment in which the supply chain is situated. This paper has been reviewed and is supported by USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health of the Global Health Division and supports the broad objectives of the U.S. Global Health Initiative. Cover photo: Clockwise from upper left—family planning commodities; healthcare provider in Ethiopia at refrigerator; child in Liberia receiving routine health services; delivery truck outside a clinic in Liberia. JSI. USAID | DELIVER PROJECT John Snow, Inc. 1616 Fort Myer Drive, 11th Floor Arlington, VA 22209 USA Phone: 703-528-7474 Fax: 703-528-7480 Email: [email protected] Internet: deliver.jsi.com