In June 2005, President George W. Bush launched the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI). He pledged the U.S. Government to increase malaria funding by more than $1.2 billion over five years to reduce deaths from malaria by 50 percent in 15 African countries. President Bush also challenged other donor countries, private foundations, and corporations to help reduce the suffering and death caused by this disease. With the increased resources of PMI, the U.S. Government now has the ability to meet ambitious treatment and prevention coverage targets by providing, expanding access to, and ensuring the appropriate use of, key malaria commodities.
The USAID | DELIVER PROJECT, Task Order Malaria (TO3) was awarded on April 6, 2007; it is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under contract number GPO-I-03-06-00007-00. Implemented by John Snow Inc. (JSI) and ten principal partners, TO3 supports the USAID/ PMI strategy to reduce the impact of malaria in Africa using a three-pronged strategy: procuring, managing, and delivering high-quality, safe, and effective malaria commodities; providing on-the-ground logistics capacity, technical assistance, and pharmaceutical management expertise; and ensuring technical leadership to strengthen the global supply, demand, and financing of high-quality malaria commodities. These activities are part of TO3’s three overarching objectives:
Objective 1 : Improve and expand USAID’s provision of malaria commodities to programs in order to increase the availability of safe, effective prevention measures and treatment.
Objective 2 : Strengthen in-country supply systems and capacity for management of malaria commodities by improving logistics capacity and pharmaceutical management.
Objective 3 : Improve global availability of malaria commodities through activities that promote a more stable global supply and more efficient distribution.
The following map illustrates the procurements that TO3 made during the first six months of FY09:
Objective 1: Improve and expand USAID’s provision of malaria commodities to programs. Activities include—
Tender and administer contracts with suppliers and internationally recognized wholesalers.
Define criteria to prequalify commodities and sources of supply for procurement with respect to dimensions that include quality, efficacy, safety, performance, reliability, and sensitivity.
Create and maintain a quality assurance (QA) program to ensure that commodities meet contractual product specifications.
Provide procurement management and commodity ordering support to all USAID-funded malaria programs; and provide support for commodity procurement, ordering, reporting, and management through the management information system (MIS).
Provide freight forwarding, insurance, custom clearance, and consignment that promote efficient and secure delivery of malaria commodities.
Coordinate procurements and deliveries with other international donors.
Provide commodity-specific information to USAID for inclusion in the annual PMI report and other congressional requests for information.
Objective 2: Strengthen in-country supply systems and capacity for effective management of malaria commodities. Activities include —
Strengthen pharmaceutical management systems and supply chains and coordinate the logistics required throughout the supply chain, with a specific focus on the delivery of commodities from port of entry to point of use.
Ensure quality assurance within the supply chain.
Coordinate, implement, and manage logistics for large-scale long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets (LLINs) distribution campaigns, retreatment campaigns, and routine distribution.
Support the management of diagnostic equipment, including laboratory supplies and rapid diagnostics tests.
Coordinate, implement, and roll out artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) and diagnostics.
Analyze, introduce, and oversee commodities in the private sector supply chain.
Strengthen pharmacovigilance and post-market surveillance.
Strengthen waste management systems.
Objective 3: Improve global supply and long-term availability of malaria commodities. Activities include —
Establish cost-effective implementation mechanisms for forecasting, procurement, logistics, and management of commodities.
Support global leadership on key commodity supply chain management issues.
Coordinate with other international donors and procurement agencies.
Work with malaria control programs in Africa on policy issues regarding the adoption, financing, and implementation of malaria commodities, particularly LLINs, ACTs, and RDTs.
Coordinate work with other USAID contractors and cooperative agencies.
Strengthen prequalification process for malaria commodities by working with domestic and international standards and partners, as appropriate.
Periodically analyze supply and pricing issues.
Support the development of new technologies and products.
The following map illustrates Task Order 3 country presence to date:
TASK ORDER PARTNERS
To support TO3 and meet USAID’s objectives, John Snow, Inc., is a partner with many organizations, including:
