Dear Colleagues,
Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to review some materials and I came across an interesting statement from the work of a neuroscience researcher, John Cacioppo.
“We don’t derive strength from our rugged individualism, but rather from the collective ability to plan, communicate and work together”
In many ways, this quote resonates with both the supply chain and the IAPHL as a community. The different components and entities of the supply chain as well as each member of the IAPHL community are expected to be rugged and strong individually. However like John Cacioppo stated, the true strength of our community is derived from our connectedness and our working together.
This connected and collective strength in the IAPHL community is what we have tested with the Spontaneous Technical Calls we had in the month of August. Through the calls, we had the opportunity to use the strength of our community to tackle individual challenges, evolve a working solution, and make it common knowledge for all. We did that for quality assurance in the supply chain of health commodities and also for forecasting & quantification in blood bank services. I would like to again appreciate the authors of the two topics (Geeton and Yari), the moderating experts we had on the calls (Johnie, Maite, Laila, Barry, Munu), and other members who joined or replayed the calls.
In August, we also had a combined Chapter Council Meeting. It brought together the leadership of Anglophone and Francophone chapters and we had the pleasure of having a leadership coach – Phil Kamutenga in the house to share some thoughts with us. Thank you, Phil!
I also recognize the participation and outcomes of all the chapter engagements in the different countries, the webinars, WhatsApp engagements, and our evergreen listserv connections and sharing. Please let us keep sharing, growing, and making impacts together!
In the month of September, we look forward to reigniting our Moderated Discussion. This time it will be coupled with a webinar so that we can asynchronously engage the topic and have the opportunity to extend the conversation on a call with the experts. This month, we will review the book by Dr. Bahman et al of Forecasting for Executives. This will be properly introduced later and I hope you look forward to this as much as I do. Visit the calendar for more updates on other events.
As I conclude, I bring in the words of Amanda Mwirotsi: “Barry has provided comprehensive guidance. Always a pleasure to read your comprehensive responses, Barry!! You are an IAPHL Treasure.” I do not see a better way to capture my gratitude to you, Barry, for your consistent resourcefulness and presence in the arena. Thank you Amanda for capturing it accurately.
Keep The Strength!!
Timi.
Omole, Timilehin
Executive Director, IAPHL
Your Global Gateway to Health Supply Chain Management
From the Desk of the ED IAPHL: September 2023