The objective of the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT is to increase the availability of essential health supplies for public and private services and programs. The purpose of this Indefinite Quantity Contract (IQC) is to design, develop, strengthen and, upon request, operate safe, reliable, and sustainable supply systems that provide a range of affordable, quality essential health commodities including drugs, diagnostics, and supplies to clients in country programs.
USAID field missions indicate a strong desire for technical support that strengthens all aspects of in-country supply chains, including forecasting, procurement, distribution, management information systems, quality assurance, storage, and infrastructure. While family planning and reproductive health remain a priority in the field and for this project, field missions also seek supply chain systems that are designed to handle a range of health products, including contraceptives and condoms, essential drugs, and select commodities for HIV/AIDS, malaria, maternal and child health, avian influenza, and infectious and pandemic diseases. This IQC seeks to strengthen supply systems for all essential health commodities and create environments that are conducive to their sustainability.
On September 29, 2006, the project was awarded as an IQC with individual task orders being issued for specific scopes of work.
To date, three task orders have been awarded under this IQC:
Task Order 1 on September 29, 2006 by the Office of Population and Reproductive Health to support public health programs, including family planning and reproductive health programs
Task Order 2 on March 21, 2007 by the Bureau for Global Health’s Avian Influenza and Pandemic Response Unit.Originally focused solely on avian influenza (AI), in September 2009, the task order’s mandate was expanded to include all existing and emerging pandemic threats.
Task Order 3 on April 6, 2007 by the Office of Health, Infectious Diseases, and Nutrition to support the President’s Malaria Initiative
Product availability is a simple yet powerful concept. At the IQC level, product availability is supported through the three IQC objectives:
Central to efforts under the third objective—improve USAID’s provision of commodities to programs—is the establishment of a best in class, effective, and responsive global procurement capacity supported by a state-of-the-art management information system (MIS). To build a solid procurement capacity, a new procurement services unit was created, reflecting the project’s new mandate. The new MIS supports this mandate, allowing the project to effectively manage procurements for multiple task orders, and strengthen global and regional coordination and advocacy for commodity security.
In addition to achieving the project’s objectives, USAID also wanted the project to do business in a new way, referred to as a “new business model” for the project. The main attributes of the new business model are:
Innovate and use best practices in supply chain management
Promote data-based decision making along the entire supply chain
Partner with local organizations
Use the private sector
Use local hires in project implementation
Use subcontractor capacities
“Lead from family planning”
Serve as the “go to place” for information on strengthening public health supply chains.
While retaining a common overall objective to increase the availability of essential health supplies, these IQC objectives and the new business model have been implemented and emphasized differently by USAID among the three task orders.
