Martin Ellis FCILT

"My career in logistics and supply chain management has spanned more than four decades, from automotive manufacturing and aerospace engineering to international consultancy and global health. Yet one assignment in Rwanda fundamentally changed both my perspective and the direction of my career.

In 2009, I joined the USAID-funded Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) programme under PEPFAR and moved to Rwanda as Technical Advisor to CAMERWA, the country's central medical stores organisation. My primary responsibility was to help implement a national active distribution system for pharmaceuticals, delivering medicines directly from the central warehouse in Kigali to district pharmacies across the country.

At the time, Rwanda's Ministry of Health had been attempting to establish such a system for six years. Medicines were largely collected by districts themselves, resulting in inconsistent availability, high inventory levels, emergency deliveries and frequent stock-outs. The challenge was not simply one of transportation. It required a complete redesign of processes, planning, scheduling, inventory management, stakeholder engagement and performance measurement.

Working closely with Ministry of Health officials, pharmacists, district teams and development partners, we designed and implemented a monthly active distribution service covering the entire country. Over an 18-month period, the programme moved from diagnostic assessment to full national implementation. The results were significant: reduced stock-outs, lower inventory levels throughout the supply chain, fewer emergency deliveries and improved availability of essential medicines for patients, particularly in rural communities.

What made the experience especially rewarding was seeing how logistics could directly improve health outcomes. Success depended not only on systems and processes but also on developing local capability. One member of the project team later progressed to become a senior supply chain leader within Rwanda's Ministry of Health, demonstrating the lasting value of investing in people alongside infrastructure.

The Rwanda project became a defining chapter in my professional journey. It demonstrated how disciplined supply chain thinking could strengthen national health systems and improve lives. That experience ultimately led to my appointment in 2016 as the first Head of Supply Chain at the Global Fund, where I was responsible for developing the organisation's first global supply chain strategy and supporting supply chain transformation programmes across Africa and Asia.

For me, logistics has always been about more than moving products. At its best, it creates access, resilience and opportunity. Rwanda showed me just how powerful that can be."