WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific - 2016 SPRs RBB 2016 SPRs by country | Página 833

Standard Project Report 2016
Supply Chain
In 2015, WFP expanded an online supply chain management system, called mSupply, to distribute all medical
supplies in addition to the specialised nutritious foods (SNF) for malnutrition treatment in the capital, Dili. The online
system was introduced as a pilot, with funding from a private sector donor, given that electronic stock inventories
have proven to increase the availability of medicines at the primary healthcare level, reduce the incidence of
stock-outs and wastage of expired medicines, and increase visibility and transparency.
At the end of 2016, 23 out of 24 health facilities in Dili were using the mSupply system daily, placing electronic
orders and feeding data into a live online, customisable dashboard, accessible by the Ministry of Health, the Medical
and Pharmaceutical Supply Agency (SAMES) and the pharmacy department. Based on the successful pilot, the
Ministry requested WFP to extend support into 2017, funds for which were subsequently received from Yum!
Brands, which continued its support from the pilot phase. SAMES is developing a hand-over plan, informed by
assessments, and is on track to take over the management of much of the supply chain system in 2017.
In 2016, WFP and the Ministry of Health, delivered supplies to 84 percent of health facilities across the other five
municipalities in the country. However, there was a shortage of nutritional supplies in late 2016, as a result of delays
in the production for Timor Vita (Vitacereal or Super Cereal) and delays in the delivery to Timor-Leste of
Plumpy'Doz and Plumpy'Sup (ready-to-use supplementary food). The delays in the production of Timor Vita for
pregnant and lactating women (PLW) impacted the programme's ability to deliver food to women in both the
treatment and prevention of malnutrition programmes. The lack of Timor Vita supplies reduced the number of
children attending health clinics, as typically when women knew Timor Vita was available, they also brought their
young children to the clinics, thus leading to a lower than expected uptake of nutrition services for women and
children. Timor Global's production problems stemmed from poor cash flow practices and management difficulties,
as well as challenges in sourcing high-quality raw materials in Timor-Leste and tardiness in importing raw materials.
For this reason, WFP advocated with the Ministry of Health to import Super Cereal for PLW as a backup, which was
also cheaper and would avoid a significant interruption in treatment for targeted PLW. However, no agreement was
reached by the end of 2016.
The total amount of the imported ready-to-use supplementary food, Plumpy'Sup, purchased in 2016 was low as the
majority of the SNF required for distribution to children had already been purchased in 2015 and was therefore
distributed in 2016. In 2016, the programme had planned to distribute 555 mt of locally produced Timor Vita, but
because of delays in production, less than 50 percent was distributed. These delays in the production of Timor Vita
led to a lower than expected uptake of nutrition services by PLW and children aged 6-59 months, and as a result not
all of the Plumpy'Sup ordered for Timor-Leste could be distributed prior to the December expiry date. To minimise
potential losses, and in light of the low uptake of nutrition services for children in Dili, WFP and the Ministry of
Health decided to implement a short-term malnutrition prevention project, distributing over 20 mt of Plumpy'Sup to
children aged 6-59 months in Dili during October and November. Nonetheless, 9 mt of Plumpy'Sup expired in
December, and was therefore counted as a loss.
In 2016, 0.2 mt of Timor Vita were lost due to poor storage practices and damage in handling. In order to reduce
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