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UNFPA Sri Lanka

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Deliver SRH supplies Ensuring that supplies reach the

last mile
Ensure effective, safe Since 2018, UNFPA delivered programme supplies
and quality products
worth USD 472.5 million in more than 114 countries.
Among these were male and female condoms, oral
Sustainable and injectable contraceptives, intrauterine devices
Procurement (IUDs), maternal health and life-saving supplies,
medical equipment, reproductive health,dignity kits

Last Mile Assurance and PPE (Personal Protective Equipment).  

In order for UNFPA to achieve its transformative

goals of eliminating the unmet need for family
planning and ending preventable maternal deaths, it
is vital to ensure that these supplies reach the
women and girls UNFPA serves on time. To that
purpose, in 2018 UNFPA launched a corporate-wide
initiative called the Last Mile Assurance (LMA)
process.

The LMA process aims to monitor and strengthen the

supply chain used to safeguard and distribute these
essential reproductive health supplies, through a

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multifaceted approach that allows UNFPA to:

1. Increase its visibility of the adequate safeguarding,

management, and use for intended purposes of
family planning, maternal health, and other
programme supplies UNFPA provides.

2. Holistically quantify actual fiduciary and delivery

risk, to allow for improved programming and better
discharge fiduciary duty to the donors that provide
the financial resources used to procure the
supplies.

3. Help UNFPA partners to better manage the

programme supplies entrusted to them, by
identifying supply chain capacity gaps, preventing
fraud, and minimizing waste and losses.

4. Enforce accountability for the safeguarding,

management, and use of the supplies by UNFPA
partners. 

How is this done?

The LMA process ensures that supplies reach the
last mile through the utilization of five different tools:
supply chain maps, supply chain management
capacity and risk assessments, programme supplies
report, and finally, spot-checks and audits.

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The LMA process builds on agreements signed with

all implementing partners which clearly outline the
terms and conditions under which the partners must
manage, safeguard and distribute the supplies.

Development of supply chain maps is the first step in

the LMA Process. The supply chain maps provide
UNFPA with an initial level of visibility of key
components of the partners’ supply chain at the
national, subnational, and local levels. As they are
updated on an annual basis, UNFPA can easily see
the physical flow of UNFPA programme supplies and
corresponding information flows.

Supply chain management capacity assessments

allow UNFPA to identify the  strengths and
weaknesses of implementing partners in a large
realm of relevant supply-chain management areas,
and identify measures to improve their performance.

Supply chain management risk assessments are

used to assess the risk inherent to the handling and
distribution of the supplies through a model that
reflects eight relevant risk factors across three key

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areas: external, delivery, and fiduciary risk. Each

partner is assigned a “risk score”, which objectively
communicates the level of risk associated with the
supplies reaching women and girls in a specific
context, and determines the scope and frequency of
subsequent LMA process activities.

Programme supplies reports, the fourth tool of the

LMA process, provide detailed information on
receipts and distributions of UNFPA programme
supplies, waste and losses throughout the reporting
period, and the stocks on-hand available for future
distribution. This report allows UNFPA and partners
to better support programmatic decisions, improve
traceability of UNFPA deliveries to partners, and
identify the extent of waste and losses and fraud
instances.

On-site verifications (referred to as spot-checks) and

independent inventory audits are performed to
quantify the actual level of fiduciary and delivery risk
faced in the down-stream supply chain activities.
They both involve the following:  tracing of deliveries
and distributions down to the receiving facilities,
review of inventory records, measurement of waste
and losses, an inspection of facilities against a set of
critical warehousing and inventory management
standards, assessment of the effectiveness of
inventory accounting controls, and the identification
of “red flags.” These are potentially indicative of
instances of product diversion or other fraud
schemes that could affect the supplies donated by
UNFPA.

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What has our progress been?

With the data gathered from the LMA Process,
UNFPA has not only gained a better understanding
and greater visibility of our partners supply chains
but also made the transition from gathering data to
creating tangible actions for the continued
strengthening of our partners. We have prevented
large scale waste & losses, we have strengthened our
partners supply chains and capacity, and we are even
helping digitize health systems. The Last Mile
Assurance Process has been central to the
sustainable enhancement of our partner’s supply
chains.

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2021 Procurement highlights

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← →
+800 +740 M
Products in catalogue Condoms procured

Key Resources

Technical Specifications for disposable menstrual pads

English

Technical Specifications for reusable menstrual pads

English

Technical Specifications for reusable menstrual cups

English

Safeguarging access to combined oral contraceptives

English

Procurement Plan 2022

English

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Resources

Technical Specifications
for reusable menstrual
cups

See resources

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