Finance
In most cases building an effective health supply chain workforce will require additional financial commitments or more efficient use of available funding. Investing in the supply chain workforce will pay off with improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of the health system as a whole. Those in the health sector, and those who manage national and subnational financial resources, must be made aware of strategic, evidence-based requests for increased supply chain human resources and associated long-term funding. In those countries where donors provide separate funding for commodities but do not provide the financing for needed staff, the public-sector budgeting process needs to take supply chain staff funding needs into account and budget for them. In some instances financing is provided by external donors and the country has opted to outsource SCM functions to a nongovernment entity. In Senegal and Madagascar the governments contracted with nongovernmental organizations to deliver community-based nutrition interventions for improved health; the Democratic Republic of the Congo outsourced to the United National Development Program supply chain functions, from procurement to final distribution, for health commodities financed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; authorities in Uganda have decided to pilot outsourcing the “last mile” delivery; and Ethiopia has outsourced some of its supply chain tasks to a private entity (USAID | DELIVER Project 2010).
- Achievable activity: Review the national budget planning process to determine when and how to develop proposals for budget support to HRH for SCM.