Medical Supply Procurement to Address COVID-19

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