Member States Visit Report - Seychelles, Botswana and South Africa
Geoffrey Ngiwra
Dear Colleagues,
As I mentioned in my previous announcement, I will be sharing with you all
reports of visits made by SARPAM team members to some member states so far. The
team is still making more visits and will soon cover all countries in the
region.
Today I share with you a report for visits to Seychelles, Botswana and South Africa. In it are issues found, including PSM areas of strength and weakness. Among strengths is the move by procurement agencies to prequalify suppliers and the shift from a one-off supply contract to framework agreements. This reduces total work load on procurement staff while maintaining relatively reasonable prices for commodities. Also with a longer term buyer-supplier relationship, arising issues of product quality can be more easily followed up and resolved. Common weaknesses, however, are that quality control tests are being done on few products and the performance of suppliers is not shared with the suppliers to help them improve on their timely delivery of products.
With regards to data collected for the medicines information sharing platform we found that in most countries key information on products is lacking in the routine procedures and in the management information systems:
- Information on the registration status of the products in-country.
- Information on WHO-prequalification or registration in countries with stringent or acceptable level Medicines Regulatory Authorities.
- Detailed information on the source of the products (name and address of manufacturing site).
- FOB prices and transport and
insurance costs.
In another few days I will post a report on the visits to Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania. Comments are welcome.
Best wishes,
Geoffrey Ngwira
Regional PP Advisor
SARPAM