Background
Senegal has an estimated population of 15 million.[1] According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) country cooperation strategy, strategic priority 4 includes activities for communicable diseases through support for the mobilization of resources and the planning and implementation of monitoring and evaluation (specifically for HIV, hepatitis, TB, and malaria) and for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) through support for epidemiological surveillance.[2]
SIAPS, with funding from USAID, supported Senegal’s Ministry of Health (MOH) to strengthen the systems for NTD pharmaceutical management by undertaking a rapid assessment of the NTD pharmaceutical management system, which would help explain the integration efforts. Technical review and recommendations were provided by SIAPS.
Project Highlights
- Data were collected quarterly for the Procurement Planning and Monitoring Report for malaria commodities in Senegal.
- Data collected on the stock status of malaria medicines were shared with USAID | DELIVER for collation and sharing with the USAID/PMI team to guide procurement decisions.
- SIAPS worked with country program managers for RTI ENVISION and the Senegal MOH NTD and drug supply operational staff to assess supply chain and pharmaceutical management systems and made recommendations for streamlining programs.
- SIAPS worked with partners to develop guidelines on rational medicine use for the treatment of NTDs and on disposing of (or recycling, if appropriate) waste following mass drug administrations (MDAs). Guidelines on standard operating procedures were drafted for neglected tropical disease drug (NTDD) waste management. These guidelines addressed returning NTDDs that were expired or of questionable quality to the Central Medical Stores for appropriate documentation and disposal; disposal or proper cleaning of used NTDD bottles; and disposal of other supplies and diagnostics used during MDAs, M&E, and surveillance activities.
- Staff from the MOH, WHO, and implementing nongovernmental organization attended SIAPS-facilitated supply chain management workshops directed at national-level supply chain and NTD program managers in Accra, Ghana. SIAPS worked with country program managers for RTI ENVISION and the Senegal MOH NTD and drug supply operational staff to disseminate and develop action plans based on the assessment and recommendations of their supply chain and pharmaceutical management systems.
- SIAPS and its predecessor projects provided technical assistance to the MOH to revise the national essential medicines list.
Reference
[1] http://www.who.int/countries/sen/en/
[2] http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/136843/1/ccsbrief_sen_en.pdf?ua=1
