In South Sudan, like in many low- and middle-income countries, the health supply chain often faces significant challenges, such as stockouts, wastage, poor infrastructure and inefficient distribution, owing in part to the lack of a well-trained and professionalised supply chain workforce. This affects patients' ability to access the medical products they require.
To address this problem the supply chain management (SCM) professionalisation approach is being customised and implemented in South Sudan through a collaborative effort involving the Ministry of Health, the South Sudan professionalisation taskforce, People that Deliver (PtD) and various development partners, including a consortium comprising QualiMED Africa, CMCOMMS, Chedcom and Pejuan.
Professionalising the health SCM workforce means ensuring skilled and qualified professionals perform SCM roles. PtD and its partners support countries to develop a skilled SCM workforce, which enhances the performance of the health supply chain and increases access to quality and safe medical commodities.
Central to professionalising the health SCM workforce is PtD’s professionalisation framework, which lays out a methodical five-step approach to guide governments on their journeys. It has been used by PtD to assist numerous countries, most-recently in the East Africa Community and in Nigeria.
Dr Bortel Ohisa Ekoy, Executive Director of the Central Medical Stores in South Sudan, said, “Much of our health supply chain workers come from different professional-backgrounds, like pharmacy or accounting, and lack standard supply chain competencies.
“By professionalising our health SCM workforce and aligning the different competencies in the health supply chain, we can improve the management of health commodities and improve our delivery of effective health services.”
PtD’s customised approach
In South Sudan the SCM professionalisation framework is being customised to suit the local context. By doing so, the project team can ensure that the customisation and implementation of the SCM professionalisation efforts in South Sudan are comprehensive, evidence-based and tailored to the unique contextual factors and challenges faced by the local health supply chain system.
A series of in-depth key informant interviews with public SCM professionals in South Sudan enabled the PtD team and partners to gain a deeper understanding of the stakeholder landscape and factors influencing the supply and demand of SCM professionals in the country. The interview responses provide valuable insights into the supply-side factors that impact the availability and competencies of SCM professionals, including education and training opportunities, career pathways and professional development mechanisms.
The findings, which were presented, discussed and validated during the opening workshop in March 2025, will inform the implementation of the SCM professionalisation framework in the country. Key recommendations have been identified and will be targeted for implementation.
The next step will be a virtual validation meeting with development partners. Then attention will turn to the creation of a project charter and implementation plan. These are the first steps along a methodical five-step process that includes the creation of a professionalisation working group, the execution of a HR requirement and training needs analysis, the development of professionalisation and capacity development plans, and then finally, implementation.
Read more about SCM professionalisation.
