Local and national procurement policies

“At the last minute we discovered that the device had overrun the age limit set by Colombian Law on some donations of second-hand appliances, and could not enter the country.”

“So we had to cancel everything! Had we consulted the local authorities earlier we would have saved ourselves a lot of energy”.

Humatem’s guide ‘Equipping a health facility: 5 steps to success’

While planning a donation, it is very important to check for the existence of Ministry of Health and/or local government policies on procuring, donating, and importing medical equipment.

In some countries, decisions about medical equipment procurement are made at a district or national level – and not by the health facilities themselves.

For example:

• Are there national health priorities set out in a plan by the Ministry of Health – does your project line up with these?
• Are there national or local priorities for medical equipment procurement?
• Are there laws or regulations regarding donations of medical equipment or for importing medical equipment?

Ministry of Health or local government staff may also be very helpful in advising you on other organisations working on similar projects in the area – and thus opportunities for collaboration.

Talking point

Have you ever tried looking into the policies for equipment donation and found there have been differences between ministry of health, national, and local priorities? What were these differences? Have you even found any priorities to be restrictive, if so in what way?