Humanitarian Supply Chain

HUMANITARIAN SUPPLY CHAIN TRAINING

Humanitarian workers require competent and professional support system that will ensure the right supplies are delivered at the right time and manner to the right location and to the right beneficiaries to alleviate prolonged suffering to survivors. Supply chain is therefore central to effective humanitarian work. This is different for corporate organizations whose bottom line is profit making. To achieve effective humanitarian performance, organizations have invested heavily in supply chain logistics. However, most of the personnel responsible for this critical function in these organizations are not professionally prepared to complement their organizations because they lack humanitarian preparedness background and training and those qualified and experienced are stationed at national offices or headquarters.

Need assessments and good planning is indispensable to ensure that humanitarian assistance – whether cash, medical supplies, nonfood or food items are delivered on time in simple and complex emergencies. Most organizations do not use representatives from supply chain during need assessments to identify humanitarian assistance and response strategy. Consequently, bottlenecks emerge during implementation of humanitarian assistance. The course presents the latest knowledge and skills needed by modern humanitarian supply chain professional.