Who is preparing the next generation of immunization supply chain professionals?

This commentary presents a number of the current projects and initiatives seeking to develop the next generation of health supply chain professionals and calls for increased engagement with country governments to further support systematic approaches to HR to develop the professionals needed to sustain the next generation of immunization and health supply chains. International aid agencies, donors, and NGOs are working together to promote professionalization of supply chain management, with this community launching a number of initiatives in recent years, ranging from Project Optimize (2007), a collaboration between the World Health Organization (WHO) and PATH on optimizing immunization supply chains to meet the demands of a large portfolio of vaccines), to the People that Deliver Initiative (2011), a global partnership seeking to provide a coordinated, multi-organizational approach to addressing human resource issues in health supply chain management. In addition, there has been much work undertaken by UNICEF, WHO and other global partners to develop and share tools, training and other resources for country-based immunization supply chain practitioners.