Resources relating to COVID-19

ARC developed this position paper on supply chain sustainability to contribute to knowledge and thought leadership. This paper describes five technical innovations ARC believes can sustain the availability of health products. ARC also makes recommendations for country ownership and governance.

In this position paper, ARC proposes five technical initiatives that can contribute to sustainable supply chains in public health delivery. It also makes recommendations for country ownership and governance to create an enabling environment for governments to adopt them, potentially with private sector assistance.

How do you build resilient supply chains, and how do you do so sustainably?

ARC supported the NDoH by mobilising the funding and resources to deliver a programme that would provide training in demand planning at the provincial and national levels.

ARC developed a comprehensive process to facilitate change management in line with the project plans for the various initiatives underway. ARC formulated an approach to communicate and drive the adoption of a supply chain transformation roadmap at national, provincial and public health facility levels.

ARC partnered with the AMD to develop an operating model that would improve its ability to predict, avoid and respond to stock shortages timeously. This led to the development of a future-state VAN operating model.

ARC developed a tool for the NDoH that gives insight into whether provinces had the right quantity of medicines to meet the Covid-19 medicines demand forecast.

ARC identified an opportunity to apply its change management methodology to assist healthcare workers to cope with the seismic change that had happened in their work demands and working environments because of Covid-19.

In his presentation at the ARC Academic Forum meeting in November 2020, Dr. Temidayo Akenroye of Liverpool John Moores University explored some of the challenges, lessons, and opportunities that have emerged for academia in Africa because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As Africa grapples not only with the impact of Covid-19 on the health sector but with historical challenges, what role will private sector engagement play in health system strengthening?