No supplies; no services
Consistent access to supplies is one of the largest challenges our partners in the beautiful Blue Pacific face. Motivation Australia’s Procurement Tool Kit was developed to strengthen procurement systems and practices in health services.
Training health and rehabilitation personnel in appropriate and relevant procurement strategies will ensure they are well equipped to make informed procurement decisions. This cultivates long term sustainability, leading to improved outcomes for service users.
Centering real experiences
The Procurement Tool Kit has been designed as an online training course which participants can undertake either alone or as part of a blended learning cohort. It also includes a number of templates learners can adapt and use in their real work.
Through a multimedia experience, learners are taught approaches to procurement that acknowledge and advise on the real-world context that many of our partners work in.
The course was written to be understood by people who have had no formal training in procurement, but may need to make procurement decisions for their workplace and service users. However, feedback from our pilot shows that even experienced personnel found new insight and felt their understanding of procurement had been refreshed by the course.
Quality assurance
Six staff from partner organisations in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands joined Motivation Australia staff and two expert reviewers for the first pilot training. Their insight was invaluable to ensuring the Procurement Tool Kit is accessible, relevant and effective.
Participants included entry level staff who had little experience with procurement, managers with years of experience, and a regional expert on procurement. Over three days they completed modules, asked questions and delivered feedback that will shape the next stages of the tool kit.
Despite the expected technical difficulties, participants were very enthusiastic about the potential of the Procurement Tool Kit, and look forward to being able seeing it utilised in their organisations to train personnel. We do too!
Acknowledgements
The Procurement Tool Kit is being developed as part of Motivation Australia’s Pacific Wayfinders project, supported by the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s NGO Cooperation Programme (ANCP).
Our thanks go to the Ministry of Health and the National Medical Stores of the Solomon Islands the Papua New Guinea National Orthotics and Prosthetics Service and the Ministry of Health & Medical Services of Fiji for supporting their staff to attend the pilot training.
Thank you also to Ken Wallis and Jodie Clark for their time supporting the training and reviewing the Procurement Tool Kit.
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