2020 Prize Competition

About the Competition

Challenges in managing supply chains to deliver health outcomes in global health contexts abound, particularly when factors beyond the control of supply chain managers such as infrastructure, port clearance delays, weather, governance issues, location of clinics, human resource capabilities, etc. all impact success. Despite such challenges, we see stories of remarkable success in improving health delivery and outcomes that leverage partnerships between organizations, and in cooperation with governments, NGOs and donors, deploying innovative and appropriate technology and human resource practices. Each year, we seek to recognize such organizations by celebrating & sharing practices that have delivered documented success.

Up to four projects typically are invited to present their work at the Summit. The organization with a winning submission is recognized with a monetary prize. The review panel is comprised of experts with experience in global health contexts but are not involved in any of the projects themselves. This year’s judges were:

  • Steven Harsono, Head of Public Health, IQVIA Asia Pacific
  • Pascale Leroueil, Vice President of the Healthcare sector, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan
  • Azuka Okeke, CEO, Africa Resource Centre, Nigeria
  • Kelly Hamblin, Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Prof. Sriram Dasu, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

2020 Grand Prize Winner

Presentation Title: Covid19 Action Fund for Africa

A collaboration between Direct Relief, the Community Health Acceleration Partnership, the Community  Health Impact Coalition, Pandemic Action Network, and VillageReach. Presented by Tapiwa Mukwashi and Mila Nepomnyashchiy

The COVID-19 Action Fund for Africa: A Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Initiative for Community Health Workers (CHWs) is a radical collaborative of partners who came together to respond to an urgent crisis: a lack of essential PPE for CHWs working in some of the most under-reached communities.

The COVID-19 Action Fund For Africa’s (the Fund) goal is to raise up to $100 million to supply PPE to 1 million CHWs up to 24 African countries for approximately one year. It  has two objectives: (1) to fund an urgent unmet need instigated by the COVID-19 pandemic: supplies to protect community health service delivery; and; and (2) to increase visibility of the critical role CHWs play in providing essential health services among government leaders, multilateral institutions and private donors. This effort is meant to supplement other international and national COVID response efforts to supply the African health workforce with PPE. The Fund matches donated PPE with government-identified gaps, and conducts end-use verification processes with in-country partners to document the arrival and distribution of products to CHWs. 

2020 Competition Finalists

In no particular order:

Optimizing supply chain management for efficiency using the commodity order management system in Nigeria – USAID Global Health Supply Chain Program-Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM). Presented by Abubakar Mohammed. 

Adaptation of a private-sector model for availability & visibility in South Sudan: The Integrated Call Center – Global Health Supply Chain Program-Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) in partnership with Chemonics International. Presented by Sara Haider.

Adapting routine supply chain supportive supervision to improve health care worker capacity and supply chain management performance in the era of COVID-19 – Global Health Supply Chain Program-Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) in partnership with the Eswatini Ministry of Health. Presented by Willie Siduna & Sifundo Zwane.