By Oola Courage Allan
Communication Officer kitgum DLG
17/09/2026
Kitgum District Strengthens Health Commodity Accountability as Ministry Disseminates Last Mile Assurance Guidelines.
Kitgum District — Health officials and local government leaders in Kitgum have been urged to strengthen accountability, monitoring and safeguarding of essential medicines and health supplies as the Ministry of Health rolled out the Last Mile Assurance (LMA) Guidelines and the National Health Supply Chain Risk Register/Map.
The dissemination, which brought together health and local government stakeholders, sought to equip sub-national actors with practical tools to identify supply chain bottlenecks, manage risks and ensure that essential medicines and health supplies reach intended health facilities and beneficiaries in the right quantities and are properly managed.
Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Health, Mr. Emiku Joseph, a Pharmacist in the Department of Pharmaceuticals and Natural Medicines, said the Ministry had developed the LMA Guidelines and the National Health Supply Chain Risk Map to strengthen visibility, safeguarding, accountability and appropriate use of essential medicines and health supplies throughout the health supply chain.
“The Last Mile Assurance Guidelines provide a framework for identifying bottlenecks and coordinating mitigation actions to ensure that commodities reach health facilities and are properly managed,” Mr. Emiku explained.
He said the National Health Supply Chain Risk Map complements the LMA Guidelines by identifying and profiling key risks along the health supply chain, their potential consequences and the mitigation measures required to address them.
According to Mr. Emiku, the LMA framework recognises the critical role of local governments in safeguarding health commodities and ensuring accountability at the last mile. He therefore called for active participation by district and municipal authorities in monitoring the movement, storage and utilisation of essential medicines and health supplies.
The sub-national dissemination is expected to strengthen coordination between the Ministry of Health, local governments, health facilities and other stakeholders in addressing challenges that may affect the availability and proper management of medicines.
Kitgum Reaffirms Commitment to Health Supply Chain Guidelines
Speaking on behalf of Kitgum District Local Government, the Assistant Chief Administrative Officer (ACAO), Mr. Odong Sam, welcomed the Ministry of Health team and reaffirmed the district's commitment to complying with national health supply chain guidelines.
Mr. Odong noted that Kitgum has continued to work with the Ministry of Health and the National Medical Stores (NMS) to uphold integrity and accountability in the management of medicines and health supplies.
He emphasised the importance of inspecting consignments delivered to the district to verify that the medicines and supplies received correspond with the quantities and specifications supplied.
He further highlighted the supervisory responsibility of local government in ensuring that medicines are properly received, stored, distributed and accounted for at health facilities.
Municipality Calls for Upgrade of Health Centre III
Closing the dissemination, Hon. Okwera Richard Ojara, Mayor of Kitgum Municipality, thanked the Ministry of Health team for conducting the training, describing the dissemination as insightful and timely in building the capacity of local actors to monitor the distribution and management of medicines.
The Mayor, however, used the occasion to renew the municipality's appeal to the Ministry of Health to consider upgrading one of its Health Centre III facilities to Health Centre IV.
He explained that the facility serves a large catchment population and handles a very high outpatient department (OPD) workload, which he said is comparable to the workload handled by Kitgum General Hospital.
The Mayor therefore urged the Ministry to review the status of the facility, taking into consideration its catchment population and service utilisation, with a view to upgrading it to Health Centre IV.
The dissemination comes at a time when strengthening the last mile of the health supply chain remains critical to ensuring that medicines and health supplies are available, protected and appropriately utilised at the point of service delivery.
The Ministry of Health is expected to continue engaging districts and municipalities across the country to promote implementation of the Last Mile Assurance framework and strengthen risk management throughout the national health supply chain.
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