UNFPA Somalia continues to work on strengthening the Logistics Management Information System (LMIS) for all the three zones of Somalia in Mogadishu, Somaliland and Puntland for them to manage better logistics data and stocks associated with reproductive health life-saving drugs and birth spacing commodities.

Each Ministry of Health has since signed validation letters for the implementation of the newly revised LMIS Forms which will reinforce the logistics systems across the zones and foster logistics data collection and reporting, according to UNFPA Somalia Reproductive Health Commodity Security (RHCS) Chief Technical Advisor Mr. Ibnou Diallo.

He said guaranteeing an adequate supply of reproductive health commodities to people who need them is vital and that this entails a strategic and well implemented supply chain management system.

"The process of revising and improving the Ministry of Health (MOH) LMIS Forms started with a needs assessment that inventoried all existing stock management tools being currently in use in Somaliland. Field visits and informants' interview were conducted in the three zones by the UNFPA Somalia team including logistic technicians and the MOH technical team," said Mr. Diallo.

He said the outcomes of these visits revealed an insufficient LMIS tools in use; such as a lack of complete logistics data collection and inadequate appropriate tools.

"In light of the MOH expectation to move from a PUSH to a PULL ordering system, the Forced Ordering Version was selected to better fit the needs of the system strengthening approach. Thus the existing LMIS Forms needed to be revised and improved as well," explained Diallo.

He further explained that a four-day training session was conducted in each zone in which the logistics management system using a competency based approach was employed and that participants came from not only the MOH supply Unit but also from partner organisations such as PSI and SOFHA.

In total 85 participants were trained during the second quarter of 2015 and one major outcome of this workshop was the revision of the currently used LMIS Forms in light of what is being done in the state-of-the-art logistics management.

The workshop agreed on the design of the following new LMIS Forms; Stock Card (SC), Daily Activity Register (DAR) for Birth Spacing, Daily Summary Activity Register (DSAR), Weekly Summary Activity Register (WSAR) and Stock Status Report and Order Form (SSRO).

These LMIS Forms encapsulate the three types of the recommended LMIS Records that should be managed by any efficient logistics system and which are Stock-Keeping Records, Transaction Records, and Consumption Records.

Follow up in the RHCS Training recommendations on the design of new LMIS Forms, the UNFPA RHCS Chief Technical Adviser was tasked to finalise the forms and present them at the next RHCS Technical Working Group. In May 2015, this forum met in Djibouti and went over the LMIS Forms and reviewed each one of the five proposed forms and approved their design and content.

It's in this context that all the MOHs from the 3 regions committed themselves to validate the newly designed LMIS Forms and to engage them in the dissemination of these tools for the improvement of supply chain systems, including data reporting and ordering processes.

by Pilirani Semu-Banda,[email protected] UNFPA Somalia Communications Specialist