CIPS has been awarded a grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve the procurement of medical supplies across Africa.

We will do this by developing an African Healthcare Public Procurement Network, helping to build sustainable healthcare public procurement communities, all working together to globally-recognised standards for the most efficient, ethical procurement practices. CIPS will work with on-the-ground agencies to strengthen procurement processes and provide the knowledge to deliver improved spending.

cips.org

Improving health procurement

practices across Africa

The aim of the network is to connect communities to enable peer-to-peer learning, to share best practices, to encourage joint working and to develop a more robust procurement system based on globally-recognised standards. There will be face-to-face and online events providing opportunities for learning and development, insights, debates, experience-sharing and networking.

Our focus is on all aspects of health procurement, as demonstrated in the orange box below, initially concentrating on South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, then expanding into French-speaking countries in West Africa. We will work in close collaboration with international specialists in supply chain management and logistics, including ASCM. This will enable the sustainable development and continuous improvement of the full procurement and supply chain cycle.

The programme started in December 2018 and will run over three years. CIPS has completed the first phase of the programme,and the next phase starts now. We will further explore health procurement organisational capability, identifying improvement opportunities, using a tailored diagnostic tool.

We will conduct diagnostic reviews with local public sector organisations, leading to targeted recommendations and action plans for continuous improvement based on the CIPS Procurement Excellence framework – a set of best practice criteria.

Later this year, we will create a knowledge hub, to support procurement staff in carrying out their roles, by providing additional knowledge, skills and guidance. CIPS will also support the network through training and qualifications based on the Global Standard in Procurement and Supply competency framework.

Improving health procurement practices across Africa

About CIPSCIPS, the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply, is a not-for-profit organisation that exists to promote and develop high standards of skill, ability and integrity among procurement and supply chain professionals. We are the world’s largest professional body dedicated to procurement and supply, with a global community of over 200,000 professionals in over 150 countries, and offices in Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East.

Established in 1932, CIPS holds a prestigious Royal Charter, granted only to organisations that are pre-eminent in their field. Our qualifications are overseen by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) in England, and officially recognised by regulators in various countries, demonstrating that they meet specific quality standards.

CIPS Global Standard competency framework, which is based on extensive research with around 3000 specialists across the

globe, sets the benchmark for what good looks like in the profession.

We help governments, development agencies, and businesses around the world to work towards our internationally- recognised standards, including healthcare organisations such as the NHS, Glaxo SmithKline, and the National Emergency Response Council on HIV and AIDS.

We are already working with many procurement and supply chain professionals across Africa including:

• Over 18,000 professionals who are CIPS members

• More than 43,000 CIPS exams were taken in Africa last year

• CIPS has offices in South Africa and Ghana and 14 branches across the continent

Procurement

• Sourcing

• Contracting

• Purchasing/P2P

• SRM, supplier performance, KPI measurement

Interdependent areas

• Forecasting

• Demand planning

• Quality assurance

• Specification conformance

Supply chain management

• Manufacturing

• Freight/ Logistics

• Warehousing/ Returns

Knowledge hub for best

practice

Procurementknowledge

Case studies

Leadership forums

Dedicated webinars

Communities of practice

Knowledge exchange

Learning and study materials