Objectives
An estimated 33 million vitamin A capsules, 27 million deworming tablets and 184 million iron folic acid tablets are required for each round of the Maternal New-born Child Health Week (MNCHW) in Nigeria. Previously, stock forecasting and allocation did not account for existing stocks at the State level. The objective of this study was to design and implement a stock forecasting tool to improve the efficiency of resource allocation.
Methods
Data collection tools captured available stock of nutrition commodities within State and Local Government Areas (LGA) warehouses. Data on workforce capacity and fund allocation and release were also captured. For the June MNCHW 2015 round, the tool was sent to States with data consolidated at the federal level.
Results
Warehouse stock was reported by 28 States (76%) and 227 LGAs (29%). A total of 18,772 vitamin A capsules-5,848 blue and 12,924 red-with a value exceeding 185,000 USD were available. A total of 104,000 USD worth of deworming tablets and 146,200 USD of iron tablets were also reported. Overall, 436,800 USD worth of commodities were identified at the State and LGA level. These data were used to determine the supply gap for each commodity, which was then dispatched to the State.
Conclusions
For each MNCWH round, 2 million USD worth of nutrition commodities are needed. Through operationalization of this tool, almost half a million USD, or 20% of supply cost, was saved. In next round SMS platform will be used to collect the information at the health facility level.
