Transforming Supply Logistics for Health Commodity Security in Africa

Abstract

To resolve the problem of ensuring secure supplies of all health commodities, health planners in African countries must first identify arrangements that best serve the public interests of promoting choice and competition in ensuring health commodity security. Investments in inventory management should not be viewed as a one-off exercise but rather as a continuous search for the optimal scale and scope of operations that ensure the availability of essential health commodities most of the time. Without competing alternatives to manage inventory, public-sector logistics monopolies lack adequate incentives to devise ways of reducing costs and improving output. Further, these monopolies make it more difficult to minimize the impact and duration of catastrophic supply disruptions. Current efforts to improve public-sector supply logistics must be extended to include the transformation of existing public and private logistics infrastructure for inventory management into a state of prudent multiplicity—one in which there are at least 2 full-line national logistics institutions competing to serve all government, nongovernmental, and private health facilities. Health planners should consider creating a state of prudent multiplicity in their roadmaps, master plans, and health system strengthening initiatives.