Support to the Regional Centre of Excellence for Vaccines, Immunisation and Health Supply Management

Team Members

*indicates student or postdoctoral fellow

Technical Support to the implementation of the East African Community RCE-VIHSCM

Project period

01 June 2016 – 31 December 2019

Between 2016 and 2019 the SOPH provided expertise to assist the University of Rwanda establish the EAC (East African Community) Regional Centre of Excellence for Vaccines, Immunisation and Health Supply Chain Management (RCE-VIHSCM). The vision of the Centre is to become an autonomous, well-recognised, top-class, regional ‘knowledge hub’, providing high-quality pre- and in-service training, disseminating best practices regarding vaccines, immunisation and health supply chain management.

Key areas of support provided by SOPH were

the development and co-ordination of short-course training; and
continuous development of training support for the Master programme, focussing especially on learning management systems and open source e-learning platforms.

Four members of the University of Rwanda team attended an SOPH Winter School short-course on Medicines Supply Chain Management (MSCM), also learning about UWC’s learning management system and being introduced to several e-learning tools at the School. The SOPH team’s visits to Rwanda focussed on building capacity and transferring skills regarding the development of on-line learning materials, and mentoring on-line teaching and support staff. The first cohort for the Master degree in MSCM graduated in 2019 and included participants from all six EAC member states (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda).

The Regional Centre is funded by the German Development Bank (KfW) through Health Research for Action (hera). KfW has agreed to support a second cycle during which the RCE will be established as a centre for digital teaching and learning for the EAC and beyond in health supply chain management.