by Michael Keizer on July 31, 2010
In this second interview in the series on the Zambian supply chain pilot, A Humourless Lot talks with Prashant Yadav, professor of supply chain management at the MIT-Zaragoza Logistics Program.
AHL: Could you tell us a bit more about your role in the project?
PY: I had conducted research on the medicines supply chain in Zambia in 2006 funded by the UK DFID which highlighted deficiencies in the system. After conducting the study to diagnose the supply chain problems, one of my specific mandates from DFID and the World Bank was to come up with four of five options that could possibly solve the issues that were identified in the earlier reports. A second task was to give input on measurement and the metrics to measure success vs. failure: what indicators to use and how to measure them in such a way that we could draw scientifically valid conclusions. We wanted to integrate monitoring and evaluation into the project from its earliest stages. Want to know more? Click here.
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by Michael Keizer on July 19, 2010
The World Bank, The UK Department for International Development, and USAID recently released the results of a logistics pilot project in Zambia, in which the availability of various medical supplies was improved. This is the first of a three-part series in which I talk with two of the team members and finish with some personal reflections. In this first article in the series, I interview Monique Vledder, senior health specialist at the World Bank and supervisor of the project.
AHL: Could you tell us a bit more about the background of this project? Why was it initiated?
MV: We have been involved in supporting the government to implement malaria prevention programmes like bednet distribution in Zambia since 2005. However, over the course of our programmes we realised that, although the government was quite successful in preventing malaria, the people who still were infected could not get adequate treatment due to a lack of malaria treatment drugs at the rural health centres. Our analyses showed that those drugs were available at the central level and district level; but somehow they did not arrive at the health centres. Clearly, there was an issue with the supply lines between MSL (the central medical store), the districts, and the centres. We partnered with other major donors like the UK and US governments as well as JSI and Crown Agents as implementers, and with MIT to ensure academic support. Our joint analysis pointed towards placing commodity planners at the district level as the most promising option. When we discussed this with the Zambian government, we were given a strong commitment for for a pilot project to try this out. Click here to read on about this project
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by Michael Keizer on June 11, 2010
- Crown Agents are looking for senior procurement specialists for their office in Arlington VA (USA) and Malawi; procurement specialists for Mongolia and Malawi; an ARV logistics officer for Botswana; a procurement consultant for Tanzania; a supply chain operations manager for Malawi; an SCMS deputy country director for Rwanda; a logistics assistant for their office in London (UK); public procurement advisors for several countries; and a team leader for Malawi
- Save the Children is looking for an operations director, a senior procurement specialist and two roving logistics specialists for Haiti; a senior manager procurement, contracts and compliance for the West Bank/Gaza; and two senior logistics specialists to be based in Washington DC (USA).
- Maxwell Stamp is looking for a project costing and procurement specialist for Laos
- UNICEF is looking for a procurement assistant for their office in Geneva (Switzerland), a contracts officer for their office in Copenhagen (Denmark), and a supply and logistics specialist for North Korea. Sorry, no links, they still hide their vacancies behind a registration process.
- DanChurchAid is looking for a field logistics officer for Katanga (Congo DRC).
- Merlin is looking for deputy logistics coordinators for Côte d’Ivoire and Congo (DRC); a logistician for Congo (DRC); logistics managers for South Sudan, Kenya, Pakistan, Congo (DRC), and the Central African Republic; a logistics/administration officer for Gode (Ethiopia); senior logisticians for Grand Kru and Montserado (Liberia); and a surge logistics officer for South Sudan.
- JSI is looking for a deputy chief of party SCMS for Nigeria.
- Concern Worldwide is looking for a transport manager for Haiti; an assistant country director systems for Afghanistan; and a general systems manager and a logistics and administration coordinator for Zambia.
- The IRC is looking for logistics managers for Congo (DRC) and Haiti.
- The IFRC is looking for a trainee logistics delegate for based in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), an operation coordinator for Guatemala, a head of support services based in Panama City (Panama), a procurement delegate for Haiti, and a senior procurement officer based in Geneva (Switzerland).
- MSH are looking for a senior program associate – supply planning/MIS/M&E for Bangladesh.
[Image: Job opportunities by Coffeechica. Some rights reserved.]
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