MTaPS Supports the Government of Bangladesh to Manage COVID-19 Commodities

The USAID Medicines, Technologies and Pharmaceutical Services (MTaPS) Program, led by MSH, is working with the Government of Bangladesh and other stakeholders to develop an online reporting system that will strengthen supply chain management for commodities needed to prevent and treat COVID-19 at health facilities.

Bangladesh’s COVID-19 objectives are to increase border security to curb the entry of COVID-19 patients, identify cases early, update the country’s laboratory capacity to test for the virus, and prepare the public health system to respond to an outbreak. 

Following the US government’s announcement to mobilize $2,500,000 to support the country’s COVID-19 readiness and response efforts through USAID, MTaPS staff began working closely with the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and its Institute of Epidemiology, Diseases Control and Research; the Centers for Disease Control; the Central Medical Stores Depot (CMSD); and other stakeholders to develop the reporting system.  

The system is designed to receive and issue COVID-19 commodities and related items—including personal protective equipment—support their rational distribution, and track daily stock status of individual items. It is hosted by the government’s existing web-based Supply Chain Management Portal, which a previous MSH-led project helped establish and bring to scale. 

The system was developed in close collaboration with the DGHS Director of Hospitals and Clinics and CMSD officials, and will help managers and policy-level staff make decisions using data from participating health facilities.

The DGHS Director of Hospitals and Clinics has provided a notice to all health facilities on the frontlines to use these systems to manage and maintain COVID-19 commodities, improving the distribution of these critical items.