Nepal

USAID Global Health Supply Chain Program-Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) project in Nepal collaborates with The Ministry of Health and Population’s Department of Health Services and supply chain stakeholders. The project uses proven implementation approaches to ensure that quality health commodities are available and accessible to all levels of the supply chain—center, province, district, local level government (LLG) and service delivery point (SDP). Our goal is to ensure uninterrupted supplies of health commodities to prevent suffering, save lives, and create a brighter future for families in Nepal. While strengthening an integrated health supply chain in Nepal, the project focuses our support in three health program areas along with COVID-19 response. 

HIV/AIDS: GHSC-PSM coordinates with FHI360 to procure and deliver HIV/AIDS commodities on behalf of the PEPFAR program in Nepal. The procurement of HIV commodities is aligned with Nepal’s objective to ensure commodity availability in line with the Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) program scale-up.

Family Planning and Reproductive Health (FP/RH): GHSC-PSM interventions and strategies are designed to ensure sustainable access and continuous supply of quality-assured FP/reproductive health (RH) products. The interventions are supported by data use, as well as policy and regulation that enable women to choose, obtain, and use their preferred method of family planning. GHSC-PSM also coordinates with the USAID Mission and project HQ on procurement and delivery of FP commodities for Nepal CRS, a social marketing agency, to distribute low-cost FP products through its innovative social marketing initiatives and extensive distribution network.

Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH): GHSC-PSM implements activities support the overall supply chain management of a subset of MNCH priority commodities addressing the major causes of maternal, newborn, and child mortality. GHSC-PSM supports the central MOHP and provinces on forecasting and supply planning of MNCH commodities including FP, essential drugs, and nutrition commodities to ensure availability at health facilities. 

COVID-19 responses: At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, GHSC-PSM executed several proactive strategies to ensure the availability of key health commodities. In Nepal, the project supported in developing an electronic logistics management information system (eLMIS) dashboard for COVID-19 commodities to facilitate timely decision-making. The project generates and communicates COVID-19 commodities daily stock status data to GoN in order to prevent and reduce stockouts and improve commodity availability.
 

GHSC-PSM provides technical assistance in the following areas to strengthen Nepal’s supply chains:

• Strategy and Planning
• Distribution
• Forecasting and Supply Planning
• Procurement
• Quality Assurance
• Warehousing and Inventory Management
• Management Information Systems
• Governance and Financing
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Human Resources Capacity BUilding

• Management Division, Department of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Population: technical assistance recipient
• The Nepal CRS company: a social marketing agency and recipient of FP commodities from USAID through GHSC-PSM 
• FHI360: recipient of HIV/AIDS and Lab commodities on behalf of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program in Nepal.\
•  United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA): coordinates with GHSC-PSM on program implementation relating to family planning supply chain and information management.
• United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF): collaborates with GHSC-PSM on eLMIS and other supply chain strengthening activities related to cold chain management for routine immunization and COVID-19 vaccines.
• Global Fund/Save the Children International: coordinates with GHSC-PSM to support supply chain strengthening activities. 
• World Food Programme (WFP): collaborates with GHSC-PSM on responding to COVID-19 pandemic
   

• Improved LMIS reporting rate and timely data visibility for decision making. The average national LMIS reporting rate has significantly increased from 69 percent in 2018 to 96.5 percent in 2021. Data availability has enabled the GoN to meet World Bank disbursement-linked indicators (DLIs).
• Reduced average stockout and wastage/expiries of FP/RH and MNCH commodities. The early data visibility enabled by the increased reporting facilitated timely supply plan and forecasting and redistribution of commodities to help prevent stockouts and overstock.
• Expanded scale-up of the eLMIS in five tiers of the supply chain: central, provincial, district, LLG and SDPs. 
• Improved strategic planning and implementation related to supply chain management and commodity security.
• Improved in-country logistics including effective and efficient delivery of health commodities to service sites.
• Increased capacity building efforts by transferring skills, knowledge, and technology for improved and sustained performance.
• Strengthened enabling environments to improve supply chain performance.