Procurement Process for Purchasing ARVs
Introduction
One of the biggest challenges INOs (International Non-profit Organizations) face today are the constraints and challenges in financially managing their organization. Being established in abroad locations makes the shipment of equipment difficult and adds to overall expenditures, but what organizations spend the most money on, next to that around personnel, are the purchasing of such equipment, materials and medicine. To overcome these challenges, many organizations have taken on commercial or business-like approaches to attempt to minimize these costs.
Medical INOs that assist sick people in developing countries face, yet an even more difficult task: having constant medication to provide for their patients. Today, HIV/AIDS is one of the most prevalent illnesses in developing countries and until either a cure is found or people start to partake in healthier and more careful lifestyles, medical INOs have been and will need to consistently provide medication to help minimize the symptoms of having the sickness. ARVs (Antiretrovirals) has been proven to be the most effective medication to help victims of this illness. This medication can be a very expensive purchase, however and it is important for organizations to buy them at reasonable prices from places that make them maintaining a high quality for better efficiency.
There are approximately four million people in need of treatment to help alleviate symptoms from HIV/AIDS and only about 1 percent of them have access to such medication. Although it would be nice to increase the numbers of this medication to help more victims, at this point, quality preceeds quantity. It is important then for organizations to find ways to buy them in quantities from places that make them with care and sell them at reasonable prices.
The following link was taken from the Doctors without Borders website. It is a short clip showing the affects that the medication has, evidence that those who have access to it, feel practically cured.
http://www.msf-tv.com/video/?v=51079434481037003412007
As depicted through this clip, it is obvious that this medication is imperative for those who have HIV/AIDS. However, an emphasis needs to be place on the fact that there needs to be in place a detailed selective process to buy the medication in order to be as cost conscious as possible. This process is called the procurement process and is important because:
- Maintaining cost efficiency, to avoid unnecessary spending
- Transparency
- Protection of the misuse of grant funds
- Accountability for current and prospective donors
Doctors without Borders was the first organization to assist HIV/AIDS victims in developing countries and has spent years developing a procurement process for these medications. For this reason this website will offer, in addition to providing an overview of the procurement process, recommendations taken directly from the DWB procurement process as a way to advise other organizations what they should do to reach maximum cost efficiency.
Medical INOs that assist sick people in developing countries face, yet an even more difficult task: having constant medication to provide for their patients. Today, HIV/AIDS is one of the most prevalent illnesses in developing countries and until either a cure is found or people start to partake in healthier and more careful lifestyles, medical INOs have been and will need to consistently provide medication to help minimize the symptoms of having the sickness. ARVs (Antiretrovirals) has been proven to be the most effective medication to help victims of this illness. This medication can be a very expensive purchase, however and it is important for organizations to buy them at reasonable prices from places that make them maintaining a high quality for better efficiency.
There are approximately four million people in need of treatment to help alleviate symptoms from HIV/AIDS and only about 1 percent of them have access to such medication. Although it would be nice to increase the numbers of this medication to help more victims, at this point, quality preceeds quantity. It is important then for organizations to find ways to buy them in quantities from places that make them with care and sell them at reasonable prices.
The following link was taken from the Doctors without Borders website. It is a short clip showing the affects that the medication has, evidence that those who have access to it, feel practically cured.
http://www.msf-tv.com/video/?v=51079434481037003412007
As depicted through this clip, it is obvious that this medication is imperative for those who have HIV/AIDS. However, an emphasis needs to be place on the fact that there needs to be in place a detailed selective process to buy the medication in order to be as cost conscious as possible. This process is called the procurement process and is important because:
- Maintaining cost efficiency, to avoid unnecessary spending
- Transparency
- Protection of the misuse of grant funds
- Accountability for current and prospective donors
Doctors without Borders was the first organization to assist HIV/AIDS victims in developing countries and has spent years developing a procurement process for these medications. For this reason this website will offer, in addition to providing an overview of the procurement process, recommendations taken directly from the DWB procurement process as a way to advise other organizations what they should do to reach maximum cost efficiency.
