Addressing the Human Side of Health Supply Chains

As a delegation of MSH experts heads to the Global Indaba—the first conference to focus on human resources for supply chain management in Africa—to share what they’ve learned through years of supply chain management work across several projects and countries, we asked one of our experts, René Berger , about his hopes and expectations for this important gathering.

1. What do you hope to see at the Indaba forum?

In addition to reconnecting with supply chain colleagues from across the world, the Indaba is an opportunity to hear about the latest approaches to supporting human resources associated with supply chain work, particularly in the public sector. Given the different ways that supply chains are managed across the globe, the human resource requirements similarly differ. So, the opportunity to match up HR approaches with supply chain approaches is a great way to stay abreast of how supply chains are being optimized.

2. What can MSH contribute to the conversation?

For MSH, this is an opportunity to share what we’ve learned from the human resources for health activities we’ve been focusing on primarily through the USAID MTaPS program? but other projects as well. For example, we will be running a skills workshop during which we will present different tools focused on pharmaceutical regulations, pharmacovigilance and the like, using online software that MSH developed. We’re looking forward to hearing where the participants feel there are challenges and what the solutions can look like and explore how these tools can help improve their work.

At MSH, we support personnel in the public sector gain the skills they need to improve their performance, while at the same time we look for opportunities to improve the sector as a whole, largely through outsourcing opportunities. The discussions we will have at the Indaba, in both formal sessions and in the “hallways,” will give us further insights into where the supply chain community is focusing and where we should further refine our approach to supporting supply chain optimization.

3. Why a forum dedicated to human resources?

For a long time, global supply chain work in country was the realm of the “public sector,” which meant it was government owned and operated. And relatedly, many governments are challenged on how to train, deploy, and retain the staff associated with managing supply chains. As we think through what role the private sector can play, it’s becoming an all more appropriate discussion.

At MSH, we’ve been focusing on private-sector engagement and the role that the private sector can play in improving the human resource environment for supply chain services, so this forum is an opportunity to see how our thinking aligns with others in the global space. This forum and others are great places to test how we are approaching resourcing to see if the broader “market” concurs.

4. Which sessions are you most looking forward to at the Indaba forum?

Among other things, I’m looking forward to hearing the Keynote on “The Role of Donors and the Private Sector in Improving Human Resources for Supply Chain.”? The topic is near and dear to the approach we are taking as MSH: What can the private sector do and how might we encourage more outsourcing of supply chain work at a country level?