Medical Supply Procurement

Veljko Sikirica and Allan Rotman will lead the discussion. Veljko is an ILI Course Advisor, Faculty at Belgrde University and the University of Rome, and formerly of the Inter-American Development Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Allan is an ILI Course Advisor, a Governance, Leadership and Procurement Consultant for the USAID Global Health and Supply Chain Program, and formerly a Lead Procurement Specialist at the World Bank.

Main topics of discussion include:

(1) Key lessons and observations on the COVID to date

• Emergency response now moving, but no guarantees that supplies will meet demand
• Supply of personal protection equipment (PPE) is slowly normalizing
• Quantifying how much is enough is only an estimate
• In many countries amount of financing is still a constraint
• Procurement and negotiations are still time-consuming processes with suppliers
• Does the daily communication and media flow help or hinder?

(2) What to plan for next: testing and/or a second wave?

• Interviews and case studies across several countries
• Is re-use of PPE a practical option
• What are your priorities in procurement for next 6-9 months?
• World Bank is now implementing COVID-19 financing operations
• Data is being shared with countries - e.g. transparency and pricing are improving
• Supplier’s performances are still to be proven
• Have you been able to organize multiple suppliers to decrease risks?
• What about staffing and hiring process (btw -this is a procurement process)
• What about managing stress?

(3) How to help in the future

• Continue to provide continuing professionalization of experienced staff
• Learning across different country contexts
• Self-reliance and new initiatives: what learning do you need to create local suppliers?
• What challenges do you have to bring together diverse participants/ different layers of management