As part of the commitment to ensure that all individuals have access to affordable, quality reproductive health (RH) supplies, UNFPA offers procurement capacity building in the form of technical support, training, and mentoring activities for key stakeholders in the procurement, production, and regulation of RH commodities.
Quality Assurance Capacity Building
These capacity building activities are available to manufacturers, national regulatory authorities, national quality control laboratories and other similar bodies. An example of a quality assurance capacity building activity is conducting regional workshops in conjunction with WHO and FHI 360 on laboratory quality control for RH Products. The purpose of these workshops is to review and discuss best practices in laboratory management, which includes accreditation, sampling, testing protocols and procedures to ensure the quality of reproductive health commodities. There is also an opportunity for countries that have participated in the regional workshops to receive on-site training within their laboratories to build upon the concepts introduced during the regional workshops. Current capacity building initiatives include:
- Regional workshops on standards and laboratory quality control for RH products
- On-site training for national laboratories testing male and female condoms
- Informational workshops on the WHO/UNFPA prequalification processes and specifications
- Informational workshops for manufacturers on the Expert Review Panel and WHO Prequalification Programme
UNFPA is also available to provide Quality Assurance Capacity Building support for third-party organizations upon request. Third party support includes: consultation on quality assurance issues, training, and policy development.
For information on upcoming capacity building workshops and events please contact us.
A Business Approach to Transforming Public Health Supply Systems
A brief produced by the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition’s Systems Strengthening Working Group (SSWG) lays out the key principles that governments can embrace to re-engineer their public health supplies systems to better serve their mandate to improve and save lives. The brief expands on the idea that governments must act as stewards who guide and govern functioning supply systems but must also embrace the diversity of supply chains and the players involved. Read the brief here: A Business Approach to Transforming Public Health Supply Systems
The Training Resource Package for Family Planning
USAID, WHO, and UNFPA would like to share a comprehensive set of materials designed to support up-to-date training on family planning and reproductive health. The package, called The Training Resource Package for Family Planning or TRP, is accessible here.
The TRP was developed using evidence-based technical information from World Health Organization publications. It contains curriculum components and tools for designing, implementing and evaluating training. Materials are appropriate for pre-service and in-service training and for health workers of all levels in both the public and private sectors. The current TRP modules cover:
- Benefits of Family Planning
- Family Planning Counseling
- Combined Oral Contraceptives
- Implants
- IUDs
- Male and Female Condoms
- Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM)
- WHO Guidance (Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use (MEC) & job aids, Selected
PSM Toolbox
In 2007, the WHO AIDS Medicines and Diagnostics Service (AMDS) created a platform to improve access through the internet to procurement and supply management (PSM) tools. WHO/AMDS in collaboration with the AMDS partner network developed it further. It has evolved into a database that lists available PSM tools and is presented in the form of a search engine to find and select PSM tools that are needed for a particular PSM technical area of interest to the professional. PSM toolbox
PCSM
For an introductory course on procurement and supply chain for pharmaceuticals which includes F&Q, please consider accessing the Procurement Training by UNDP.
Toolkits and Guidance Documents
- People that Deliver: Advocacy tools for a systematic approach to addressing HR matters in the management of health supply chain systems.
- The advocacy toolkit and guide "Leading Voices in Securing Reproductive Health Supplies" is a practical, evidence-based tool, designed to raise awareness and foster policy change for increased commitment to reproductive health supplies.
- Private Sector Engagement: A Guidance Document for Supply Chains in the Modern Context is a handy toolkit in case you wish to partner with or draw upon expertise from the private sector. This document was prepared by the UN commission for Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children
- High Impact Practices in Family Planning contains briefs and guidance on a number of issues related to Family planning programming and supplies. Their briefs are available in several languages.
- Contraceptive security: incomplete without long-acting and permanent methods of family planning. This commentary reviews the importance of long-acting and permanent methods and considers why they are neglected in many national contraceptive security strategies and family planning programs.
- Building effective, sustainable systems for procuring essential reproductive health supplies. This white paper highlights the value of a comprehensive approach to procurement capacity development in developing countries.
- Contraceptive Security and Decentralization: Lessons on Improving Reproductive Health Commodity Security in a Decentralized Setting. During the last decade, reproductive health commodity security (RHCS) advocates have increasingly recognized that certain commodity security issues occur more often in decentralized settings. They have also learned the value of engaging lower-level stakeholders (regional-, district-, and facility managers and health providers, as well community members) throughout the commodity security strengthening the process.