Attachments
Introduction
Public health emergencies often profoundly impact the health security of the countries facing them. Strong local logistics capacities can help reduce the consequences of such emergencies, by ensuring that the supplies and resources required for the response are available at the right time in the right place. Supply chain preparedness measures, including pre-positioning health supplies and equipment or training logistics emergency responders, are considered a major asset in the management of and response to health emergencies.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has a long-standing experience in emergency response around the world. Its logistics expertise and footprint enable largescale emergency responses in some of the world’s most remote and complex operating environments. As such, WFP Supply Chain is regularly called upon to support the response to complex health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or Ebola and cholera outbreaks. While WFP’s core mandate remains the delivery of food assistance in emergency contexts, WFP has been working in collaboration with a wide range of humanitarian actors over the past two decades as part of Sustainable Development Goal 17 ("Partnerships for the goals"), contributing to emergency response and preparedness efforts across sectors. WFP’s approach to capacity strengthening and emergency preparedness in the health space focuses on niche areas of supply chain management where WFP has proven expertise. Aligned with national health priorities, WFP shares the tools, methodologies and best practices from its experience in food logistics, adapted and tailored to meet local health needs.
In 2022, WFP signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Health (MoH) of Malawi to help strengthen public health supply chains and enhance preparedness efforts. As part of this MoU, WFP collaborated with the MoH and the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DODMA) to conduct two Health Supply Chain Simulation Exercises (SimExs) in July 2022 and August 2023. These multi-stakeholder exercises brought together a group of participants and facilitators from various organizations specialised in health supply chain or emergency response in Malawi and aimed to test and strengthen the logistics response capabilities of Malawi’s logistics actors. Both exercises were developed and implemented by the MoH and DODMA with WFP’s support and tailored to the context of Malawi to practise the logistics response in the first phases of a simulated emergency. An extensive consultation process with key health supply chain stakeholders in the country helped to define the content and scenarios of the SimExs. A thorough assessment process was also developed before the SimExs and applied during and after the SimExs to evaluate the impact of these exercises on the skills and capabilities of the participants and facilitators.
This report aims to share the results and findings of the assessment of the two SimExs conducted and provide recommendations for using this approach again in Malawi or other geographies. The findings and recommendations are intended to help key actors understand their function in future emergency responses in Malawi.