LocationsGAVI Offers $2.6 Million to Strengthen South Sudan’s Supply Chain System
July 10, 2025
Officials from the Ministry of Health, GAVI, UNDP and partners during a visit to Riverside Warehouse, Gumbo
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has, through its partnership with the Global Fund, offered $2.6 million to South Sudan’s Ministry of Health through UNDP to strengthen the country’s supply chain system.
This funding will support the expansion of the cold-chain capacity and security at the Central Medical Stores, Konyokonyo, and the extension of the dry storage capacity at the Riverside Warehouse, Gumbo – a storeroom for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis medicines and laboratory reagents. The warehouse also runs an oxygen plant and medical incinerator to produce medical oxygen and facilitate safe disposal of medical, pharmaceutical and hazardous waste.
The renovations and improvements to the Central Medical Stores, Konyokonyo and the Riverside Warehouse, Gumbo will strengthen these facilities’ capacity to handle the increased needs under the Health Sector Transformation Project (HSTP). These include scale-up of national immunization support and improving the quality and availability of sub-national storage facilities, including the Wau Regional Warehouse.
The Riverside Warehouse, Gumbo where GAVI is funding major improvements to strengthen the country’s supply chain system.
At Konyokonyo, a security system will be upgraded, a new, high-volume medical waste incinerator installed to support medical waste management, new generators procured, and improvements made to the perimeter wall and minor repairs undertaken.
It is envisaged that with these improvements, the Central Medical Stores in Konyokonyo will be able to store additional vaccines set to be introduced in 2026 and respond to the growing need for immunisation support and for the increasing number of additional health care commodities requiring this capability. These improvements will allow for the decanting of dry items from Konyokonyo to optimise the safety and sustainability of the cold-room installations.
On the other hand, the expansion of dry storage capacity at the Central Medical Stores and Riverside Warehouse, Gumbo, will provide for additional storage and distribution capacity for pharmaceuticals and other health products linked to the ongoing roll-out of the HSTP.
The existing structure will be extended to create an additional 1,500 square metres of secure, climate-controlled storage capacity. Other investments will improve and optimise the tracking and movement of commodities through the roll-out of the Electronic Logistics Information Management System (eLMIS), expand existing solar systems, upgrade the ablutions systems and install additional climate control equipment.
Ms. Amy LaTrielle, the Director Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries at Gavi Alliance speaks during the Global Fund – GAVI Alliance – High-Level Mission to South Sudan in June 2024
The decision to focus on the above priorities follows a recent joint Global Fund/Gavi-lead rapid assessment that unearthed critical gaps and areas for strengthening and investment.
These include limited capacities and growing gaps in the national cold-chain coverage for essential vaccines, sub-optimal utilisation of existing public sector storage capacities for health products as well as parallel and fragmented supply chain management systems. Others are low coverage and limited integration of digital tracking tools, limited government leadership and ownership, and inadequate medical waste management capacity and systems.
Through the HSTP investment, the Global Fund’s RSSH and C19RM investment, and the proposed additional support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, these gaps are being addressed. The additional support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, will be strategically positioned to build on these investments and initiatives to deliver maximum efficiencies.
This initiative will complement investments in the supply chain strengthening coordinated by the UNICEF and WHO under the HSTP; and through the ongoing implementation of Global Fund investments in Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health (RSSH) and pandemic preparedness and response, coordinated by UNDP under the leadership of the Ministry of Health.