Abstract

Transportation Modeling for Effective Delivery of Health Commodities in Nigeria
Track: Transportation
Authors: Andrew Inglis

A March 2012 quantification assessment of required maternal, newborn, and child health products in Bauchi State, Nigeria, identified a large funding gap. To address this, the program needed to minimize costs while maintaining supply of commodities. This study used transportation modeling to assess innovative transportation approaches that maximize delivery of products directly to health facilities within resource constraints.

Before modeling, the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT, State Ministry of Health, and other local stakeholders grouped facilities and commodities into segments based on logistics characteristics, including facility accessibility and expected commodity supply. These supply chain segments were then assessed and routed using both ESRI Network Analysis and Supply Chain Guru from Llamasoft.

The results of the modeling indicate a number of viable transportation strategies for the different segments. The principle outcome was that presenting the results visually allowed stakeholders to better assess the models' viability and providefeedback for improving transportation strategies.