Malawi Ministry of Health: cStock Supply Chain Management Application

Dimagi is pleased to announce a 7-month contract with the Malawi Ministry of Health (MoH) to support the revival and transition to local ownership of the proven cStock supply chain system for the community level.

Overview

cStock is a simple text-message (SMS) and web-based application that provides actionable data to improve community supply chain performance and availability of health commodities at the community level. Introduced in Malawi in 2011, the cStock application powerfully tracked and reported health commodities availability for the Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI), Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), and Family Planning (FP) programs consistently over the years. With usage by nearly 4,000 Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) in Malawi, cStock allowed greater visibility into community stock levels and facilitated timely decision-making to improve program delivery.

The problem

In recent years, cStock usage declined due to multiple factors. Dimagi will support the Ministry of Health of Malawi to revive and sustain the cStock stock management platform and strengthen the accountability over integrated Community Case Management (iCCM) commodities at the community level. In addition, Dimagi will support local Ministry of Health capacity to facilitate the local ownership and management of the cStock system through training of Ministry of Health technical personnel.

The solution

The expectation for this contract is that the Ministry of Health will locally host and own the system and ensure all oriented Health Surveillance Assistants in Malawi shall be able to use the system once again to improve their service to the community. Dimagi will support the revival and transition to local ownership of the proven cStock supply chain system, drawing on CommCare and Dimagi’s experience deploying tools at the community level.

How cStock generates impact

cStock generates impact in the following ways:

• Reduction in the frequency and severity of stock outs and overall improvement in availability of life-saving medicines.
• Optimal allocation of the limited medicines through pull-driven resupply of key community health medicines and supplies to Health Surveillance Assistants.
• Improved visibility into stock commodity usage and needs at various levels of the health system.
• Reduced lead times associated with Health Surveillance Assistant re-supply processes.
• Strengthening of a culture of regular data use and continuous overall supply chain performance improvement at the Health Surveillance Assistants’ resupply point.
• Improved forecasting and quantification of future medicine and supplies needs based on credible consumption data by level.