Research

I am a part-time International Executive Doctoral (DBA) Researcher at Cranfield University, researching the public health supply chain in developing countries. My motivation to study is to improve aid delivery in sub-Saharan Africa. It began with the observation that in many sub-Saharan countries you can see branded products such as soft drinks and tobacco and other western consumer packaged goods (CPG) being sold on the road side in remote rural villages (Coke or medicines - which reaches Timbuktu?). In stark contrast, patients are dying from preventable, or controllable, diseases due to lack of medication.

Melinda Gates wonders in her TED TALK below 'How is it that they can get Coke to these far-flung places?' If they can do that, why can't governments and NGOs do the same thing?".



Similar anecdotes have been around for some time and I have witnessed the reality firsthand in my home country, Kenya, and other developing countries. These suggest a business problem that needs to be solved. Although the commercial and medical supply chains may not necessarily be comparable, the success of the commercial supply chain suggests that improvements in the medical supply chain may be possible. My study considers what lessons can be learned from the private sector to improve last mile logistics for public health supplies in developing countries.

A pilot project in rural Zambia improved drug supply chains for lifesaving drugs. Access to effective pediatric malaria treatment doubled with the new distribution model. Nationwide, the new method could save 27,000 children from dying of malaria by 2015.



Zambia Study Shows Stronger Supply Chains for Key Drugs can Reduce Child Mortality from World Bank on Vimeo.

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