Seamless supply chain in reproductive healthcare in Zimbabwe

Getting condoms and other contraceptives to Zimbabweans in rural areas is no easy task. In 2002 a transport study revealed shortages at outlying public health centres due to a transport bottleneck. The Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC) must ensure that reproductive health commodities are available to everybody. However, as approximately 80% of the service delivery points are in rural areas this presents a huge challenge. Previously the ZNFPC had no means of delivering goods to these far-reaching parts of the supply chain.

During 2003-2006 Crown Agents was sub-contracted to JSI Europe as an implementing partner on the Delivery Team Topping Up Project (DTTU). The project, to address this contraceptive transport bottleneck, was co-founded by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The DTTU project is a continuing success and the benefits to date have included:

• a seamless and efficient operation of logistics/supply chain
• reproductive health commodity security for all men and women of Zimbabwe
• reduced stockout rates of reproductive health commodities at all public health centres from above 40% to below 5%.
• logistics management information for all stakeholders.

In 2007 DFID appointed Crown Agents as prime contractor for the DTTU project. During the next five years we will manage the entire reproductive health commodities supply chain including in-bound and out-bound contraceptive deliveries. To ensure sustainability we are also integrating HIV/AIDS programming which will provide stakeholders with critical intelligence for the project's continuation.