A set of resupply procedures tools
In August 2012, The Ministry of Health in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and SC4CCM initiated the process of rolling out Resupply Procedures for the Community Supply Chain. This process has been kicked off by the organization of a training of trainers (TOT) for MOH staff, Kirehe District staff and IRC staff in Kirehe District. The training, facilitated with a technical support from the Supply Chain for Community Case Management (SC4CCM) Project will cover one district and will be expanded to other districts in the near future.
Resupply Procedures are a set of steps and processes that assist a Community Health Worker in performing basics supply chain tasks that allows him to ensure product availability in his/her community. The Resupply Procedures were first introduced in six districts in Rwanda (Ngoma, Nyabihu, Bugesera, Burera, Rutsiro, and Huye) by the Ministry of Health/Community Health Desk with assistance from the SC4CCM Project. Since the initial roll out, the Ministry of Health has embarked on a process of rolling out the procedures country wide. IRC is the first partner organization to support the roll out of the Resupply Procedures in one of the remaining 24 districts.
An MOH/CHD staff facilitating a session at the TOT
Olivier N. Wane, the Community Supply Chain Expert in the Ministry of Health thinks that the training will be beneficial to the members of the community in Kirehe District and that this will be an opportunity for the improvement of the community supply chain in general. “This is very important for the management of community commodities and a key for the development of better monitoring strategies. It is you here present that we will call upon for the rolling out of the training in other districts’’, he added.
The TOT will empower MOH staff, IRC staff, District Hospital Staff and District Pharmacists with the skills to roll out the training to all health facilities in Kirehe District. The cascade training will reach all the way to individual Community Health Workers, thus enabling them to efficiently manage community dispensed at the community level. Feedback from the TOT has been positive. Eugenie, Quality Assuarance Officer IRC, Kirehe District remarked “This training is really very good. I wish we did it before, we should have avoided all the issues that we have now in the supply chain’’.
