Examples of organizations with whom we have ongoing relationships are:
- The US Government including;
- OGAC (Office of the US Global AIDS Coordinator)
- USAID (US Agency for International Development)
- CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- PEPFAR Track 1 Partners (Columbia University - International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (CU), Catholic Relief Services/AIDS Relief (CRS), Harvard University– School of Public Health, University of Maryland and The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation)
- DOD (Department of Defense)
- GFATM (The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria)
- UNITAID
- World Bank (WB)
- WHO (World Health Organization)
- CHAI (Clinton HIV/AIDS initiative)
- UNICEF (The United Nations Children's Fund)
- EPN (Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network)
- NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations, including faith-based drug supply organizations – DSOs –) i.e. World Vision, Mission for Essential Drugs and Supplies (MEDS), Christian Health Association of Zambia (CHAZ), Christian Health Association of Nigeria CHAN/CHANPharm
- Department For International Development, UK (DFID)
Collaboration can take different forms; from sharing information and data to coordinating activities and plans to implementing common projects. Below are some examples of past and ongoing collaborations between SCMS and key stakeholders:
Donors work together to improve procurement planning
Donors work together to improve procurement planning
Donors’ coordination is critical for an uninterrupted supply of essential medicines and other health commodities. In June 2006, the Global Fund, World Bank and the US government made a commitment to coordinate national level ARVs procurement plans, starting in Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Mozambique, Rwanda and Vietnam. At the request of the donors, SCMS is serving as technical secretariat, facilitating the operations of the procurement working group. This Coordinated Procurement Planning initiative builds on existing systems and mechanisms under country leadership. As a major donor of HIV/AIDS commodities, UNITAID has recently joined the initiative. WHO is also involved. As the initiative develops, additional countries (i.e.: Ivory Cost, Zambia) and new commodities (such as rapid test kits) are being considered. In some countries coordination efforts are even being extended to other supply chain management functions such as warehousing or distribution.
Public-private partnership to address treatment needs of children with HIV/AIDS
Children with HIV/AIDS have needs and face challenges different than adults. Responding to a call for action by the First Lady, Mrs Laura Bush, and under the leadership of the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, the US government, pharmaceutical companies, UNAIDS, UNICEF, WHO, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Clinton Foundation have developed the Pediatric AIDS Public-Private Partnership to address the unique treatment needs of children with HIV/AIDS. In order to both inform production and ensure adequate supply of antiretroviral drugs, it is essential to develop accurate, replicable forecast for future needs. To this end, a working group on forecasting has been established to produce a forecast for antiretroviral needs through the year 2008. As part of its contribution to the working group, SCMS developed of a standardized procedure to generate a replicable forecast and prepared a selective forecast of pediatric ARV demand for 2007 and 2008 in 11 of the PEPFAR focus countries plus Zimbabwe. SCMS is also contributing to a second working group examining ways to speed-up the registration of new pediatric products with the drug regulatory authorities in developing countries.
WHO/UNAIDS working group on antiretroviral forecasting for global demand
SCMS is a member of this working group which develops antiretroviral (ARV) forecasting models based on different methods and consolidates resulting forecasts of ARV demand from three main sources: UNAIDS's Annual Survey of Demand conducted on their behalf by the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) of Mexico, forecasts from The Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI), and from SCMS's pediatric forecast. The objective of the working group is to prepare global forecasts of demand that can be shared with the major manufacturers of ARVs - innovator and generic ARV - and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) producers to assist suppliers in their estimates of demand and investment plans to ensure that adequate manufacturing capacity is in place as programs scale up.
AIDS Medicines and Diagnostic Services (AMDS) Network to support procurement and supply chain management of HIV commodities
SCMS is a member of the AMDS network whose goal is to ensure that supply of quality commodities is never an obstacle to achieve universal access and to strengthen country's capacity to sustain an uninterrupted supply of commodities for the prevention, treatment and care of HIV/AIDS. The secretariat of AMDS is hosted by the HIV/AIDS department of the World Health organization (WHO). As part of its contribution to AMDS, SCMS provides procurement data for the WHO Global Price Reporting Mechanism, ARV registration status information for the WHO regulatory database and supports other AMDS initiatives and activities including the Procurement and Supply Management (PSM) tool box, development of key indicators for the monitoring and evaluation of PSM systems and participate in the WHO/UNAIDS working group on antiretroviral forecasting for global demand which AMDS coordinates, by sharing data and forecasting methodologies.
SCMS is a procurement agent for the Global Fund Principal Recipients in Côte d’Ivoire and Ethiopia
SCMS and the Global Fund’s collaboration has been key to ensure a continuous availability of HIV/AIDS related commodities at national level. In Côte d’Ivoire, SCMS has been procuring all ARVs for the country since April 1, 2007. With the support of PEPFAR and USAID, SCMS has been able to respond quickly to Global Fund needs; preventing product stockouts and managing the pipeline of orders to address the expansion of new patients into the treatment program. In Ethiopia, SCMS supported the development a six- year national forecast for all essential HIV/AIDS commodities that has been used for Ethiopia’s Global Fund Round 7 application. The results of the quantification were also used to procure a one-year supply of HIV rapid test kits through SCMS with funding from the Global Fund.
Working closely with Track 1.0 to meet scale-up targets of treatment and care programs
On behalf of PEPFAR, the Track 1.0 programs’ mission is to fast-track initiation of ART in the focus countries to meet scale-up targets of treatment and care programs. The Track 1.0 partners include Harvard University School of Public Health, Columbia University International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs, The Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and Catholic Relief Services. PSCM has partnered with these programs in several PEPFAR focus countries including: Zambia, Côte d’ Ivoire and Tanzania to aggregate ARV forecasting and in procurement. SCMS procures ARVs, OIs and laboratory products under IQC contracts which allow these programs to utilize all of PSCM’s services outside of country specific USG funding.
SCMS collaborates with CHAI and USAID | DELIVER on the development of a Laboratory Quantification Tool
In recent years, the procurement of laboratory commodities has rapidly increased. However, inadequate lab supply chains and tools for forecasting lab equipment have led to inadequate data and made planning and scale-up difficult. In October 2007, SCMS and the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) signed a memorandum of understanding to share information that paved the way for collaboration on the creation of a new laboratory forecasting tool using Microsoft Excel. Representatives from SCMS, USAID | DELIVER PROJECT and CHAI assessed various tools and agreed to develop a new tool with the following characteristics:
- Flexible – can accommodate multiple types of morbidity data
- Easy to use – should not be complicated in its layout and presentation
- Capacity building – can be used in the field for trainings exercises
- Robust – should be able to take into account as much detail as possible
CHAI undertook the development of the tool to be used for quantifying lab commodities related to the following areas: CD4 tests, hematology, clinical chemistry, viral load and early infant diagnosis—commodities that account for about 80 percent of lab commodities procured by SCMS. The tool is currently being used in Botswana, Ethiopia, Namibia and Rwanda with more countries expected to use it over the next few months. Ultimately, SCMS, CHAI and USAID | DELIVER PROJECT will continue to share the tool with others, including government agencies and PEPFAR implementing and Track 1.0 partners.
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