Ensuring the timely delivery and continued availability of LLINs to the people who need them most is an essential element in RAI2E's efforts to eliminate malaria. To this end, UNOPS-PR Procurement and Supply Management (PSM) team is providing support to Myanmar's health system by strengthening its in-country supply chain management system, making sure it is efficient and well-functioning.
In early January 2019, UNOPS-PR PSM team completed the full-cycle procurement of 5.9 million LLINs, a planned process that started in 2018.
With the expansion of the RAI2E malaria programme to accelerate progress towards achieving malaria elimination in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) by 2030, there is a corresponding increase in the number of LLINs to be delivered.
Sleeping under a LLIN remains one of the most effective ways to prevent malaria for people in at-risk populations. LLIN mass distribution campaigns play an important role towards malaria elimination in the GMS.
Ko Sai Ohm Kham, UNOPS-PR Logistics Officer, explains the importance of the shipment inspection. “When a consignment of LLINs arrives, we carry out an inspection to check the container is properly sealed, and after opening the container we check the quantity of bales. There are 850 bales per container, each with 50 LLIN packs – which is around 42,500 LLINs per container. In each container, we randomly sample around 10 per cent of bales for inspection, which includes checking the weight, primary packaging, whether the instruction on the packaging is bilingual and clearly printed as ordered, whether there are any tears, and the quality of LLINs. We record all this information. This first batch of LLINs, 1.5 million of the 5.9 million ordered, arrived compliant with regard to quality, quantity, storage condition, packaging, etc.”
This first batch of 1.5 million LLINs was delivered as planned to Sagaing Region and Kachin State in early January. “After discussion with the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) and our partners, we developed a distribution plan, which was shared with the distributer in advance. Sagaing Region and Kachin State are our immediate priority areas as they are hard-to-reach places, and we want to get the LLINs there while the roads are still good before the rainy season sets in,” he explains.
It took four months from requisition order receipt, to quality assurance, to delivery in early 2019. The LLINs were simultaneously transported to multiple locations across Myanmar within 7–10 days after arrival and customs clearance in Yangon.
NMCP has planned 6.2 million LLINs for 2019, 5.9 million procured with Global Fund support and 300,000 from the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), which have already been delivered to Yangon and pooled with the Global Fund LLINs for distribution. Delivery will be completed by the end of April, when NMCP will start its mass LLIN campaign and continuous distribution of LLINs.
“We send our own waybills along with the distributer to our partners. Each has a unique waybill number as well as detailed information on the delivery, like the partner’s name, distributer’s terms of reference, and the terms and conditions for delivery. This makes it easy to track and record our delivery to townships. When the LLINs arrive, our partners can reach us using the contact information on the waybill if they have any questions related to the delivery, such as destination, quantity or quality,” adds Ko Sai Ohm Kham. UNOPS-PR PSM team also explain in detail this delivery and receipt information during Logistics Management Information Systems (LMIS) trainings and meetings with partners.
Ko Sai Ohm Kham stresses that quality is important in every step of the delivery of LLINs, “The Global Fund has a quality control policy, so we want to ensure that the best quality LLINs are delivered right into the hands of people in the communities that need them, and that thorough inspection and checking are carried out at every step of the supply chain, this includes planning, choosing the best supplier, procurement, pre-shipment and post-shipment inspection, warehousing, packaging, distribution, delivery, supervision, recording and reporting. We continue monitoring even after the LLINs have been distributed, and are in the hands of people at risk – the condition in which they are delivered, and whether it is appropriate for their particular locality.”
On this World Malaria Day, RAI2E celebrates the achievements that have been made not only in the number of LLINs procured and distributed, but also by those involved in the management of these LLINs – the NMCP, Disease Control, Ministry of Health and Sports, RAI2E partners, UNOPS-PR and PSM teams – who make it possible to get the LLINs to vulnerable communities in remote areas of Myanmar, where they are needed most.
