By Frank Pinicop
The Kano State Ministry of Health, with support from Capacity 4 Sustainable Development (C4SD), convened an Integrated Last-Mile Delivery (iLMD) and Data Review Meeting for Essential Drug Officers (EDOs) and Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Coordinators from all 44 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
The engagement, which brought together key stakeholders from the state health sector, including representatives from the Drugs and Medical Consumables Supply Agency, Hospitals Management Board, and Primary Health Care Management Board, aimed to strengthen the efficiency and accountability of the state’s health supply chain system, particularly in the delivery of essential medicines and family planning commodities to healthcare facilities at the last-mile.
The meeting reviewed recent distribution data, assessed supply chain performance indicators, and discussed operational challenges affecting the availability of essential drugs and health commodities at the facility level. The session also provided a platform for the EDOs and MCH Coordinators to share field experiences, highlight best practices, and identify practical solutions to improve timely delivery and accurate reporting.
Speaking, the Director General Drugs and Medical Consumables Supply Agency Pharm. Gali Sule emphasized the importance of reliable data and coordinated logistics systems in ensuring uninterrupted access to essential medicines and reproductive health commodities across the state.
Pharm. Sule, who was the Chairman of the meeting, noted that strengthening the Integrated Last-Mile Delivery system remains a key strategy in improving healthcare service delivery and reducing preventable maternal and child mortality.
On his part, Prof. Salisu Ibrahim Ahmad, the Director General State Primary Health Care Management Board, reiterated Ministry’s commitment to ensuring that essential medicines and health commodities consistently reach the last mile—where they are needed most—thereby improving health outcomes for communities across all 44 LGAs.
Earlier, in his opening remarks, the Director Pharmaceutical Services, State Ministry of Health, Pharm. Kamilu Mudi Salisu urged the participants to double their efforts to deliver positive results so as to justify the resources invested in the health sector by development partners, notably in the area of strengthening integrated last mile delivery with improved data quality and visibility.
Assuring the EDOs and MCH Coordinators of the readiness of the state Ministry of Health and DMCSA to provide necessary support to find a lasting solution to any challenge they encountered, the DPS, who doubles as the Chairman of the State Sustainable Health Commodity Supply System Committee (SHCSS-C), called on them to re-dedicate themselves to achieve the desired goals.
On her part, the Coordinator Reproductive Health and Family Planning of the Ministry, Dr. Aisha Barka, appreciated the organizers for convening the review meeting, emphasizing that such engagements are critical for strengthening coordination between programme areas and improving the availability and management of life-saving commodities across our health facilities. She called on the MCH Coordinators and the EDOs to mentor the newly appointed colleagues on their roles and responsibilities to enable them deliver in their respective LGAs.
Contributing, Dr. Ibrahim Aliyu the Director, Public Health, Ministry of Health, commended the EDOs and MCH Coordinators for their dedication to improving service delivery at the facility level, noting that integration of logistics management data with programme data is critical for ensuring that essential medicines and family planning commodities are consistently available.
Also speaking at the event, Dr. Muhammad Nura Yahaya, the Director, Planning, Research, and Statistics, emphasized the importance of data quality, completeness, and timeliness in reporting, stressing that the value of the iLMD and other routine health information platforms lies in the accuracy of the data submitted.
He encouraged the participants to strengthen data validation at the facility level, ensure alignment between logistics data and service data, and actively use the findings from the review meeting to improve performance.
In his submission, the State Coordinator, C4SD, reaffirmed C4SD's commitment to working with the Ministry of Health and other relevant stakeholders to build resilient health systems through technical assistance, capacity building, and improved data use for decision-making.
The meeting seeks to explore the ILMD and health facilities stock status, as well as the benefits of delivery of health commodities from DMCSA Central Store and Zonal warehouses to facilities.
Additionally, the engagement also explored strategies for strengthening operations of the Logistics Management and Coordinating Unit (LMCU) at both the State and LGA levels.
While leading the final session that outlined the next steps, the Director, Health Commodities and Logistics of the State Primary Health Care Management Board, Pharm. Abdullahi A. Danzabuwa, re-emphasized the importance of implementing the agreed action points as key to successfully achieving the objectives of the meeting.
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