Procurement Guidelines

The Three Diseases Fund (3DF) is expected to comply with public procurement principles, rules and regulations. In receiving grants from 3DF, all implementing partners must shift from national to international procurement regarding pharmaceuticals to ensure only qualified products are used. A Standard Drugs Order List (v4.4) is available for download according to the National Treatment Protocols guides the procurement of medical commodities. All grant recipients are responsible for ensuring that procurement activities undertaken with 3DF funds comply with the principle of best value for money.

The Fund Manager has prepared Standard Operating Procedures for Procurement by Implementing Partners that are specific to the Three Diseases Fund. The Fund Manager can provide assistance in importing of health commodities if requested to do so. Guidance on the possible assistance which can be provided can be found in the Standard Operating Procedures for Clearance and Reception of International Consignments. To ensure qualified Rapid Diagnostic Kits are used for the detection of malaria the Fund Manager has pre-qualified a number of Rapid Diagnostic Kits and grant recipients are restricted to select from the pre-qualified test kits. For specifics regarding the selection of these test kits partner are referred to the document 3DF guidelines on the selection of RDTs.

For requesting procurement services from the Fund Manager, clarifications related to the current version of the Standard Operating Procedures or the Standard Drugs Order List, implementing partners may contact the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

During the past three years the Fund Manager directly procured for a total value of US$ 1,969,729.52 of health commodities on behalf of organizations that did not have prior experience or capacity in international procurement.

Procurement statistics per year of implementation

The Fund Manager provided assistance and acted as consignee for partners’ health commodities shipments needed for project implementation as in their approved work plans. This resulted in time savings for partners, who would otherwise have had to obtain import licenses. In addition, the Fund Manager provided customs clearance assistance in 114 instances, of which 25 were related to procurement undertaken by partners and 89 to procurement undertaken by the Fund Manager.

Two commodity tracking reviews have been undertaken in the past three years to ensure that all commodities procured with 3DF grants are utilised according to the agreements and all implementing partners have functional and transparent commodity tracking systems in place. The reviews, which were conducted amongst 23 partners, are outsourced to SGS Ltd., a company with extensive international experience in evaluating pharmaceutical distribution systems. The review scores 22 components of the supply chain in four categories ranging from “unsatisfactory” to “exceeds expectations”.

No partners have been scored as “unsatisfactory” but a number of partners (4 out of 23) were found to need development in some areas.