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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

How to register

Watch the recording at https://youtu.be/9eCJ5rOyOuY