Partnership
To effectively respond to national health goals, relevant government sectors must have a shared vision and a readiness to play their part. Not only the health sector but finance, labor, social welfare, commerce, and others must take ownership of the national health strategy. Further, public health supply chains need formal and informal linkages with key stakeholders such as donors, nongovernmental organizations, faith-based organizations, professional associations, consumer/patient organizations, and other countries. In some countries the private sector is the largest provider of health supplies; in others, the public sector outsources significant aspects of the supply chain. Thus the linkages with the full range of nongovernment stakeholders are important and can be achieved through formal mechanisms and/or creating special opportunities for coordination and support. In some countries donors and partners meet regularly based on specific commodities and program needs (e.g., family planning or HIV/AIDS), or use health sector-wide occasions to raise supply chain and human resources developments. The Global Health Workforce Alliance’s Country Coordination and Facilitation (CCF) approach is designed to support countries in building partnerships to advance an integrated health workforce response. An evaluation and an assessment of the approach in 2012 in selected countries found that the CCF approach contributed to tangible improved program outcomes including improved HRH management capabilities and increased health sector spending. CCF is an opportunity for SCM to contribute to building consensus and creating common ownership of a health workforce strategy that includes the SCM workforce (Global Health Workforce Alliance 2011; 2012a; 2012b).
There are also opportunities to share SCM expertise and experience across countries, at both global and regional levels. People that Deliver is a global partnership of organizations committed to raising the profile of human resources for SCM as a strategic function of health systems. One example of a regional-level SCM partnership is the 2013 Latin American and Caribbean regional HIV/AIDS commodity security collaboration, which involved four country teams, donors, technical assistance agencies, and nongovernmental organizations (Puckett 2013). Utilizing the HRH Action Framework as a backdrop, it resulted in agreed-upon short-term supply chain actions and two-year strategies for each country.
- Achievable activity: SCM and HRH personnel identify key country stakeholders to approach in advocating supply chain management improvements. Key SCM stakeholders are asked to join the national HRH partner’s forum, observatory, or other CCF-type mechanism.