Storage

This type of assessments evaluates all the elements of the Procurement and Supply Chain Management (PSM) cycle from central to peripheral level, including infrastructure for storage and indicators of performance of the supply chain. UNDP has also taken a role in the development of supply chain strategies in collaboration with national authorities, WHO and other partners in Sudan, South-Sudan and Burundi.

National supply chain strategies define priorities among the identified needs, establish work plans and related budget, coordinate inputs from different partners and optimize available resources to strengthen the country supply chain.

Several infrastructure projects have been undertaken by UNDP to improve storage capacity and conditions. As an example, extension of storage capacity at different levels of the supply chain (central, regional, peripheral) has been undertaken in Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

A new national warehouse has been built in Guinea Bissau. The malaria products warehouse of Bolivia has been renovated. In Sudan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, UNDP provided support to strengthen national warehousing, to equip and renovate storage facilities at different levels of the supply chain for pharmaceutical and other health products. All infrastructural projects are coupled with the provision of equipment (e.g. shelves, pallets, forklifts, ventilation/air-conditioning systems, Warehouse Management Information Systems) to implement WHO Good Storage Practices and ensure good storage conditions for temperature, humidity, cleanliness, pest-control, light exposure.

UNDP has also installed solar panels on medical warehouses in Angola, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This type of intervention ensures the availability of power for cold chain and controlled temperature storage conditions.

Infrastructural projects are combined with capacity development in the implementation of Good Storage Practices, related to personnel, premises and facilities, storage requirements, returned goods, dispatch and transport, and product recall. As an example, technical assistance on storage and inventory management at central level have been provided in Guinea-Bissau, South Sudan. As an interim Principal Recipient (PR) of Global Fund grants, UNDP staff participate in national technical PSM working groups involved in the monitoring of health products stock levels.

UNDP’s Solar for Health initiative is used to build additional resilience in the supply chain equipping warehouses and health facilities with solar panels and therefore ensuring electricity for cold chain, controlled temperature storage and for computer-based electronic Logistic Management Information Systems.

Support is provided for complying with WHO Good Storage Practices at the central and peripheral level.