Trained Supply Chain Workers Are Key to Improving Access to Health Products at Senegal ' s Last Mile

By Batouo Souare, Communications Officer, IntraHealth International ; Melanie Joiner, Senior technical manager, IntraHealth InternationalJanuary 08, 2020We sometimes say,“No product, no program,” within global health programs—because no health program can succeed if the medicines and health products people need aren’t available when and where they need them. It has become clearer than ever that without qualified, well-trained human resources to manage supply chains, health products do not reach the last mile.For the past seven years, IntraHealth has been working with the Ministry of Health and Social Action and the National Supply Pharmacy in Senegal to make essential health products more widely available at health facilities.Yeksi Naa (“I have arrived” in Wolof) is a distribution model that brings health products to the last mile. The model makes commodities more widely available at health facilities by combining two approaches: the National Supply Pharmacy’s Jegesi Naa Approach and theInformed Push Model. It contracts with private operators and uses electronic data collection to improve stock monitoring in real time.Back in September 2018, few supply chain agents (only around 23%) knew about or were applying Yeksi Naa technical procedures. Our goal: to increase these scores to 75% in a year.So we mentored supply chain workers, including on the Yeksi Naa technical procedures* and the accompanying electronic Logistics Information ...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Family Planning & Reproductive Health Human Resources Management Private-Sector Approaches Health Workforce Systems Pharmacists Source Type: news