Overview

The quality of health and humanitarian services is very much dependent on procurement and supply chain practices and how well-informed procurement officials are about existing treatments.

Health care is one of the largest government spending items – more than 6% of GDP on average in OECD countries. Spending per capita has risen by over 70% in real terms in OECD countries since the early 1990s. There is a clear need to make healthcare spending more effective. One way is to introduce competitive tender procedures that bring down the prices of generic medicines, making them more affordable for the public. Humans depend on supply chains to deliver basic necessities such as food and water. Any breakdown of these delivery pipelines quickly threatens human life. For example, in 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, LA leaving the residents without a way to get food or clean water. As a result, a massive rescue of the inhabitants had to be made. During the first weekend of the rescue effort, 1.9 million meals and 6.7 million liters of water were delivered.

In light of significant disruptions created by the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently, the Russia-Ukraine War, governments, and healthcare providers the world over have realized the need to strengthen and make existing healthcare supply chains more resilient and robust. Shortage of important lifesaving supplies even in the midst of significant disruptions is unacceptable post-pandemic. The importance of effective supply chains for meeting humanitarian and healthcare needs can therefore not be understated.