Strengthening Plan for the medical supplies system of the Ministry of Health – Panama
Good management of the Logistics System of Medical Supplies is crucial for achieving Guaranteed Availability of Medical Supplies in Panama; thus, starting in 2009, the Ministry of Health of Panama, with the financial support of UNFPA and the technical support of Prisma, worked on building the capacities of the personnel in charge of the logistics management of health supplies, through training courses and direct technical assistance to improve the health supply management. The project included the following activities:

• National Workshop on Logistics Chain Management designed for key personnel of logistics management in the Ministry of Health.
• Work plan for carrying out a diagnosis of the Medical Supplies Delivery system, which led to the formation of a central steering group of the Ministry of Health, in charge of leading the work, and to whom the methodology was transferred as part of the local capacity-building program; the Logistics Chain Management is also in charge of organizing the field work and designing tools for gathering logistics information at all the system levels in the country.

This activity took place in April and May 2010, and continued as part of the project with the Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office (LACRO) of UNFPA

Source of funding/Client: UNFPA Panama