Despite the proliferation of projects employing the Informed Push approach to supply chain in the past few years, little has been written about this approach. This document from the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition presents a summary of an email discussion that took place on the International Association of Public Health Logisticians (IAPHL) list serve. During the IAPHL discussion conducted in June and July 2014, four questions were posed to members of the group by the discussion moderators. The four questions were:
- What are the considerations to take into account when planning to implement such a model of distribution?
- What challenges were faced before and during the implementation of each system?
- What aspects of the transport management have posed challenges during implementation?
- What elements have to be in place to make this system work best?
The responses to these questions are summarized below and detail the lessons learned from existing implementations of the model. The four implementations discussed in this brief are summarized below to highlight the different approaches taken in different settings as well as to provide context to the lessons learned.
Summary of Last Mile Distribution Models for Health Commodities discussion