Ghana has heavily invested in its supply chain management. The four pillars of Ghana’s master plan for family planning supply chain management are coordination, innovation, transparency, and sustainability. This all ties into the overall family planning goal of making safe contractive methods affordable, available, and accessible. A yearly quantification exercise brings together the main family planning stakeholders in the country (development and government partners and family planning NGOs) to review and develop a data-driven supply plan to guide the funding effort.
The Inter-agency Coordination Committee on Contraceptive Security (ICC/CS): “No Commodity, No Program”
The ICC/CS includes donor partners, social marketing organizations, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and implementing partners in family planning and reproductive health. The committee meets regularly to analyze status reports and make key decisions to enhance commodity availability. The committee increased investment in warehouses and distributions, with a systematic placement of central- and regional-level medical stores, and scheduled delivery times via delivery shuttle.
Data Visibility and Reporting: The GFPVAN in Ghana, and More
As Julia presented, Ghana has been using the VAN platform to track inventory reports and supply plans, which enables the GHS to pinpoint when and how to intervene. Other implemented systems include:
- A Logistic Management Information System, which provides real-time data.
- The District Health Information Management System provides national-level data consolidated from service providers over a certain period.
- Monthly status reports show stock availability to help plan for redistributions.
Capacity Building of Supply Chain Practitioners
In terms of the third implementation area for family planning supply chain management mentioned at the beginning of the webinar, the GHS also focuses on training practitioners to proficiently improve supply chain management. To this end, Regional Resource Trainers train providers on family planning methods and logistics management, as well as commodity management for managers of health facilities to improve stock management at the facility level.