The Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS), National Immunization (EPI) Program Manager, Cold Chain Coordinator, and Financial Controller (FC) have recently participated at the East Asia and Pacific sub-regional Vaccine Procurement Forum in Bangkok, Thailand.
The forum was hosted by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and provided a platform for selective countries within the sub-region to share and exchange experiences and lessons learned, identify best practices for each context, and strengthen their knowledge from different countries and experts. The event’s theme is “forecasting, budgeting, and planning of vaccine procurement to strengthen the effectiveness and national immunization programs”.
National Immunization Program Manager Mrs. Jennifer Anga stated the forum has provided a venue for peer-to-peer cooperation among practitioners to exchange knowledge, practical experiences, challenges, and best practices to collectively strengthen their procurement processes and ensure timely, sustainable access to affordable immunization supplies.
“This is a unique opportunity to allow vaccine procurement practitioners from different countries/ regions to network with and learn from peers and to catalyze momentum for future continuous exchanges.
“Countries attended the Forum share experiences and lessons learned and were informed on regional activities, practices, and considerations for sustainable vaccine procurement by ensuring efficient forecasting, budgeting, and planning processes, including market intelligence for strengthened and seamless immunization services delivery. Countries discussed and identified the key building blocks and pre-requisites to contribute to the ongoing regional pooled procurement initiative”, said Anga.
She added that the forum discussions were based on; countries that were further supported with strengthening of their vaccine procurement forecasting, as well as building on their relevant initiatives and/ or events recently ongoing and/or conducted. Country participants were able to learn from the experiences and best practices of different countries in the areas of vaccine procurement.
“Providing a platform for country representatives to discuss around regional pooled procurement initiative as well as contribute to deep–dive discussions on procurement topics by focusing on some key vaccines as practical examples. Key resources and tools launched and developed by UNICEF (i.e., a course on Strategic Vaccine Procurement, Procurement Assessment Toolbox) have also been leveraged for discussions”, said Mrs. Anga.
Cold Chain Manager Mr. Patson Aven stated vaccine cold chain plays a critical role to interms of managing the potential vaccine along the immunization supply chain from national and distributed to all the Second Level Medical stores and health centers across the Solomon Islands.
“Annual Vaccine forecasting and vaccine stock visibility from all levels of the vaccine supply chain is crucial to maintaining vaccine availability and improved immunization coverage and reduced vaccine wastage”, said Mr Aven.
He stated as the Cold Chain Manager the EAPR VPF training equipped him with technical and management knowledge.
“I have learned from fellow country participants the challenges and way-forwards and it helped me to improve one step ahead of my work to serve our children’s health”, said Mr. Aven.
Health Financial Controller (FC) Mr. Jacob Akao outlined the key takeaway from this forum was each participating country had to develop an action plan on three (3) important priorities for their country’s respective immunization to avoid chronic stock out, as well as a path forward for next steps to implement what was learned from this forum.
The three priority areas are as follows:
Having a separate budget line specific for vaccine procurement with its funding allocation in the annual budget.
Increased vaccine stock visibility in health facilities for improved planning, forecasting, distribution, and stocking.
Improved cold chain functionality from lower level to health facility level.
“With these 3 priority action plans, we will require a collaborative approach and strong commitment from all stakeholders, UNICEF, Development Partners, and SIG to achieve the action plans in the short to medium term, and over the long term”, said Mr Akao.
Meanwhile, MHMS Procurement Manager Mr. Wilson Tau was not able to attend the forum due to delayed visa processing to enable him to travel.
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Health participated in East Asia and Pacific sub-regional Vaccine Procurement Forum
