Technical support to an UN-agency working group for the development of an informed roadmap for cold chain integration
Integrating supply chains for temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals should help improve the availability and quality of life-saving products right up to the point of use, and could contribute to achieving universal health coverage and equity in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC). Despite recommendations on temperature-sensitive (Ts) products integration into the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) cold chain through WHO/UNICEF joint statements in 2015 and 2020, there has been slow uptake by national immunization programs to adopt and institute this policy.
We provided support to the UN Partner Ad-hoc Cold Chain Integration Working group in the development of a cold chain integration roadmap to guide interventions aimed at improving the availability and quality of healthcare products through the integration or expansion of cold chains in LMIC. The development of the roadmap was informed by a review of the literature, individual interviews with representatives of key global and regional organizations, focus group discussions with country and regional stakeholders, involving representatives from various departments of the Ministries of Health of selected African, Asian and European countries, as well as officers from United Nations organizations, and a survey among participants to the regional focus group discussions aiming to gather opinions and recommendations to enhance CC integration in countries.
