The Manual for Procurement and Supply of Quality-Assured Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Commodities is intended to assist procurement agencies in establishing a quality assurance (QA) system for procurement of maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) products. It provides comprehensive information on specific quality requirements that must be met to ensure the quality, safety, and efficacy of the MNCH products across the full supply chain up to the point of use by patients.
This manual is divided into three modules:
• Module I describes general quality assurance for procurement as per WHO’s Model Quality Assurance System (MQAS), including prequalification (selection) of pharmaceutical products and manufacturers; purchase of prequalified products; receipt and storage of purchased products; distribution of received products; and reassessment (monitoring) of pharmaceutical products and manufacturers.
• Module II sets out a pragmatic approach to assuring the quality of MNCH products that resource-limited procurement agencies may implement when assessing products for prequalification and procurement.
• Module III provides useful technical information on lifesaving MNCH products, listed by the United Nations (UN) Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children (UNCoLSC), that procurement agencies can use to establish technical specifications for the product(s) to be prequalified.