The Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM), the global leader in supply chain organizational transformation, innovation and leadership has announced that it is the recipient of a three-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
ASCM will utilize this grant to help foster the development of a regional supply chain management association, manage the evolution of a frontier supply chain maturity model and introduce globally recognized and locally adapted methods that will improve last mile availability in public health supply chains.
Through this grant, ASCM will increase educational and economic opportunities for women and encourage healthier families and communities. ASCM will help solve critical public health supply chain challenges, including weak distribution systems and a lack of reliable monitoring and data collection mechanisms.
Additionally, ASCM will assist in the development and implementation of country-specific plans to elevate the maturity of local supply chain communities that directly impact supply chain reliability.
“ASCM believes that by improving supply chains, we have the opportunity to help improve lives, especially when it comes to underserved markets like those in Africa,” said APICS CEO Abe Eshkenazi, CSCP, CPA, CAE. “This grant recognizes the significant collaborative opportunity we have to implement global operating models that will not only improve public health supply chains, but also foster the overall advancement of end-to-end supply chain management in the region.”
ASCM is the global leader in the latest supply chain thinking and resources. The end-to-end supply chain association is focused on helping organizations design, implement and optimize their supply chain, as well as guiding professionals to stand out and move up in their careers.
As such, ASCM is best suited to effectively deploy association operating models in the foundation’s target markets, including Dakar, Senegal; Nairobi, Kenya; and Lagos, Nigeria.
The goal of the grant project is to build self-reliant supply chain talent, increase frontier market supply chain maturity, improve distribution systems, and enable more reliable monitoring and data collection mechanisms.
This project will leverage ASCM proven best practices to grow an effective, sustainable supply chain in these frontier markets.
“We are honored to receive this grant and work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve public health supply chains in Africa, helping to perpetuate smart, sensible global health development,” Eshkenazi added.
