What does it look like for women to experience equity in the healthcare supply chain in Africa?.
This International Women’s Day we consider, what does it look like for women to experience equity in the healthcare supply chain in Africa? There is much room for growth when it comes to the inclusion of women in every aspect of the healthcare supply chain.
For healthcare supply chains to be genuinely transformed and strengthened, they need to be able to effectively address the needs of all the people they are designed to service, half of these people are women.
This means that women must be included in every level of the supply chain, from decision-making to practical implementation. Women must be actively given space to share their experiences as patients and ultimate recipients of the supply chain’s efforts.
Patient input
We can better address supply chain design when we truly understand the barriers women in Africa face when accessing their medications.
Understanding the social and economic implications of accessing medications is essential to provide equitable healthcare services to women. In Africa, women often bear greater childcare duties than men, requiring them to arrange alternate childcare or bring children to medical appointments. This has practical implications that should be considered when developing medicine delivery models.
Women’s economic status and the affordability of medicine access are other crucial factors that healthcare supply chains need to consider. Starting with a patient-focused approach and deliberately including women in the patient group for data collection is essential. This should include understanding safety factors affecting women’s experience of healthcare access and historical factors that influence their decision-making.
Supply chain roles
The supply chain sector is often seen as a male-dominated technical field due to its logistical and physical delivery requirements. Advocacy is necessary to ensure women have equal access to jobs in the supply chain sector, particularly in practical roles.
Another aspect of this is making infrastructure changes that support women’s inclusion. VillageReach is advocating for more female truck drivers in the healthcare supply chain to address gender disparities in the industry. Preliminary findings revealed that many supply chain truck stops lacked facilities for women, such as ablution facilities. Addressing gaps in infrastructure will promote equity for women in supply chain and increase retention of women in logistics.
Leadership is key
All the other changes that contribute to better equity in supply chain require strategic direction, buy-in and advocacy, which means that there must be women in decision-making roles.
Many public health supply chains in Africa lack the female leadership that would make them gender conscious and able to serve everyone.
Sub-Saharan Africa’s maternal mortality rate – which accounts for two-thirds of global maternal deaths – indicates the extent to which women’s health is not prioritised in supply chain. We also saw this during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the interruptions in global supply chains disproportionately affected family planning product supply in Africa. More equitable supply chain solutions will emerge if women are in leadership positions and can advocate for women’s healthcare needs.
Having women in leadership is also essential for ensuring that funding flows are directed towards supporting women’s health.
In an academic context, having women academics invest time and effort into supply chain research will also help focus attention on issues that affect women in existing supply chain structures and practices.
Supporting gender intentionality
At ARC – Africa’s public health supply chain institution – we have begun to actively invest in including gender intentionality in our work to help create more equitable access to healthcare for women.
ARC’s gender intentionality work includes looking into the challenges women face in the context of supply chain. Part of this involves understanding the consequences women experience because of inequitable healthcare supply chains. That way, it becomes clearer where we can focus our efforts and help governments and partners develop interventions to break the cycle of discrimination against women.
The people working in supply chain should reflect the demographics of their context at every level. This will mean that there is equitable access for women and men who make a career in healthcare supply chain and its related fields, and there will be equable access for patients that the supply chain is designed to serve.
About the author
Dr Pretty Mubaiwa is the Director of Corporate Affairs & Gender Lead at the Africa Resource Centre (ARC). Dr Mubaiwa’s work focuses on bringing together stakeholders from the global public health and gender community to work towards advocating for a global policy document and scorecard on equitable access to medicines and health products as well as promoting and advancing women’s leadership in this community.
