Sourcing & Management of Health Products

COVID-19 Response: Procurement of Emergency Personal Protective Equipment

21 July 2020

The Global Fund has opened a new channel through wambo.org, the Global Fund’s procurement tool, for Principal Recipients to access quality-assured health products including personal protective equipment as part of their response to COVID-19 and consistent with World Health Organization guidance. These Principal Recipients are already accessing Global Fund financing through reprogramming or savings or the COVID-19 Response Mechanism.

Principal Recipients are strongly encouraged to start procuring using this channel but can continue using local channels under certain conditions, after consultations with Global Fund Country Teams.

The Global Fund communicated these details to Principal Recipients starting 17 July:

Lead times

Currently, if Principal Recipients and Global Fund requisition approvals are done within as fast as one week, the lead time for key PPE products are currently estimated to be as short as one to three months from receipt of request to delivery in country by air and approximately three to five months by sea freight. Countries with complex importation approvals or lengthy greenlight to ship processes should add additional weeks to their lead times as necessary. Principal Recipients should consider a mix of air and sea freight to optimize speed and freight cost.

Principal Recipients can browse the catalogue of currently available core PPE products in wambo.org. The range of products will be updated during August. The most up-to-date lead time information can be found in Category and Product-Level Procurement and Delivery Planning Guide: Indicative Lead Timesdownload in English | Français ] .

We urge Principal Recipients to place orders as early as possible to avoid disruption in supply since ongoing freight and logistics challenges are resulting in substantial delays and cost increases.

For Principal Recipients using wambo.org

Principal Recipients are strongly encouraged to start using this new procurement channel but can continue procuring PPE through local channels if: 1) they have received prior written approval from the Global Fund, 2) an open, competitive and transparent process is followed, and 3) Global Fund guidelines and policies for lead times, value for money and reliability for delivery of products of the same specification are maintained. Principal Recipients should include PPE products in their COVID-19 Response Mechanism funding requests. Principal Recipients currently procuring through the Pooled Procurement Mechanism can use approved grant or COVID-19 Response Mechanism funds to purchase these products directly through wambo.org using the normal process.

For Principal Recipients currently not using wambo.org

Principal Recipients not currently participating in the Global Fund’s Pooled Procurement Mechanism will need to complete the necessary on-boarding forms to begin procuring through wambo.org and should reach out to , copying their Country Team, to begin the on-boarding process.

More information is on our regularly updated COVID-19 Health Product Supply page.