Country Overview

With much success in helping change HIV-related behaviors to reduce new infection, Uganda is viewed by many international organizations as a model for developing effective public health education programs.

Uganda has made significant progress in addressing the HIV epidemic. UNAIDS confirmed the country's progress by recognizing Uganda’s adult HIV prevalence rate of 5.4 percent in 2008 as a sharp drop from the over 20 percent rate of the 1990s. In October 2008, the country launched a five-year strategic plan aimed at decreasing the rate of new infections by 40 percent and increasing access to HIV/AIDS services.

SCMS has supported the Government of Uganda’s efforts by helping to strengthen the country’s national supply chain for HIV/AIDS commodities. The supply chain includes many multi-sector stakeholders from the Ministry of Health to faith-based and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), with varied capacities and approaches to coordination.

Since 2009 SCMS has phased down its technical assistance portfolio and currently focuses on providing procurement services to local partners, including the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU), the Northern Uganda Malaria, AIDS and Tuberculosis program (NUMAT), and the Joint Clinical Research Council (JCRC).

SCMS completed its technical assistance support to the JCRC for its roll-out of a new laboratory supplies logistics system, and is completing installation of a new warehouse information management system at the National Medical Store (NMS).

Activities and Impact

Procurement: In order to prevent a stock out of ARV items, SCMS procured $8,021,357 in ARVs in October 2008, March 2009 and August - September 2010, in anticipation of pending Global Fund deliveries.

Quantification and forecasting:

• SCMS helped the Ministry of Health AIDS Control Program (MOH ACP) and the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) prepare the Global Fund Round 9 country proposal. The preparation involved forecasting medicine for the comprehensive provision of ART and basic care to children from July 2011 to June 2015.
• In collaboration with MOH and all ART implementing partners, we carried out a four-year national forecast of ARVs for 2009 - 2012.  Findings were disseminated to all stakeholders, and are being used by the MOH to plan and update national ARV requirements, resource mobilization plans, and in-country PEPFAR program budgets.
• SCMS conducted a one-week facility orientation workshop for four regional health officials with the goal of strengthening data collection rates at the health facility level which have dropped over time. Participants received orientation on the various HIV/AIDS commodities logistics systems (HIV test kits, ARVs, OI drugs, etc.) and toured the central-level warehouse.

Logistics capacity building:

• SCMS facilitated a laboratory logistics system design workshop for the JCRC which is responsible for providing lab services to the 34,000 clients receiving ART. In support of their work, we have provided laboratory technical assistance and capacity building, as well as conducted a training-of-trainers workshop to further support rolling out the implementation of this logistics management system.
• We conducted a TOT workshop for 34 Ministry of Health (MOH) PMTCT focal staff, and provided technical and financial support for implementing a countrywide PMTCT logistics roll out training.

Warehouse management:

• SCMS provided technical assistance to Uganda in strengthening its warehousing and inventory control. The technical assistance to the Joint Medical Store (JMS) included  restructuring its warehouse management and financial system, installing the state-of-the-art Warehouse Management Information System (MACS) and the SAGE Financial System, and providing instruction on using these systems. The warehouse management and financial system, which became operational in September 2008, uses hand-held terminals combined with radio frequency to enable transmission of data remotely from the warehouse to the database as a central location.
• SCMS procured and delivered warehouse racking for the JMS and the NMS to help improve warehouse inventory and space management. At the request of the MNS, we installed a MACS system in the NMS central warehouse to help strengthen its information management capacity and operational effectiveness.