Project Summary

Azerbaijan makes major public health care efforts to prevent and eliminate diseases, and to develop healthcare system and medical industry, on its way towards global level standards. The Government of Azerbaijan is committed to fight against HIV/AIDS and other communicable and non-communicable diseases and funds the majority of the justice relevant programmes. The most important factor is the steady increase of domestic investments in health care which is the basis for sustainable work of the healthcare systems. Within the State Health Programme, priority is placed, inter alia, on the control of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, acute respiratory diseases and sexually transmitted infections. It is well noted that the Programme will improve funding of the pharmaceutical provisions for the cancer, viral hepatitis, tuberculosis, diabetes, haemophilia and other patients. Medicines and medical supplies are important to address health issues and improve the quality of life. They are an integral part of the disease prevention, diagnostics and treatment, as well as a solution of the disability-related and functional limitations’ problems. Improvement of access to the essential medicines and medical supplies is of critical importance for achievement of the universal coverage with healthcare services and is recognized as an essential component of effective healthcare systems.

Cost-sharing of medicines procurement for the HIV/AIDS service is of special importance as the Global Fund which had provided the HIV/AIDS Grants since 2005, provided its last transitional grant to Azerbaijan so that the country moves to the full government financing of its HIV/AIDS programme starting from 2020. The country must gradually move to funding of all activities which were covered by the Global Fund. Based on successful implementation of the previous several procurement agreements with other Ministries in the country, UNDP, Ministry of Health (MOH) decided to sign a framework agreement on procurement for the HIV/AIDS and TB medicines in 2018.

Project objectives

Expected results

Financial resources:

This agreement will be funded by the Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan with financial and in-kind support from UNDP, including but not limited to the Country Office funds and human resources.

Human resources:

The agreement will be implemented by the existing UNDP personnel and newly recruited Project Manager and Assistant. If both parties agree to expand the scope of the project, additional staff will be engaged at a later stage.

Administrative resources:

The agreement will be implemented within the UNDP administrative resource framework in terms of office, financial and procurement mechanisms.

With regards of the customs procedures and storage of medical products, the project will follow the national procedures and use available storage facilities to follow the cold chain protocol where and if required.

Partnerships

The Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan will be the main partner of UNDP under this project.

Risks and Assumptions

The project will work using already well-established and proofed procurement mechanisms provided by UNDP Country Office and GF-HIST in Geneva and Copenhagen.