The Direction de la Pharmacie et du Médicament (DPM; Directorate of Pharmacy and Medicines), with technical and financial support provided by the Systems for Improved Access to Ph armaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) Program, organized a workshop at the Hotel Club de Sélingué, March 11–15, 2013, to develop a standard operating procedures (SOP) manual for the logistics management of essential medicines (EM). The opening of the workshop was presided over by the DPM’s representative, Dr. Fanta Sangho, and attended by US Agency for International Development representative Dr. Aboubacar Sadou and the SIAPS Country Director, Dr. Constance Kouamé Touré. At the end of the workshop, the participants deemed it necessary to integrate community health workers (CHWs) into Mali’s EM information and logistics management system.
Following the March 2009 national forum on “Improving Access to Essential Care in the Community,” particular emphasis was placed on the role of CHWs. In addition to the health care package elements relevant to community volunteers (nutrition promotion, distribution at the community level, essential family practices), the CHW is also responsible for simple newborn care; family planning; treatment of moderate malnutrition, of simple malaria by artemisinin-based combination therapy after rapid diagnostic test administration, of diarrhea by oral rehydration salts and zinc, and of acute respiratory infection by amoxicillin, as well as referral to community health centers for complicated cases. Accordingly, the CHW manages certain medicines and other commodities, both free and at cost, and uses certain data collection tools, such as registers for summarizing stock management and stock cards for medicines.
Despite all this, the CHW’s roles and responsibilities in the health information system had not been described in the Schema Directeur manual for procurement and distribution of EM in Mali.
The last evaluation of logistics management for EM, carried out by the DPM with technical and financial assistance from SIAPS in October 2012, identified the system’s strengths and weaknesses, notably the unavailability at the central level of the necessary logistics data and its weak use at all levels of the system for decision making. At the end of this evaluation, an action plan was adopted that required certain interventions, including the creation of an SOP manual for medicine management at all levels.
During the manual development workshop, the CHWs were recognized and included as actors at the operational level. Their role and responsibilities in the information and logistics management system were determined, data collection and reporting tools for logistics management were identified, the reporting period was fixed, and job aids for the use of these tools were created. These parameters allow assurance of the quality of implementation of CHW interventions enhancing the continuous availability of EM.
