Humanitarian Supply Chain Planning: Landscape Analysis and Future Directions – July 2024 – World

A Qualitative Study on the Status of Supply Chain Planning in the Humanitarian Aid Sector and Recommendations for Improving the Status Quo

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Our study in brief

Humanitarian supply chains provide critical support to millions of people affected by crises. To implement their programmes while ensuring optimal resource allocation and maintaining accountability to those they serve, humanitarian organisations must anticipate the needs they seek to meet and plan their supply chains accordingly. This paper examines how they achieve this by presenting the state of supply chain planning in the sector, with a focus on supply chain planning for a programmatic response over a tactical (i.e. medium-term) horizon. It draws primarily on qualitative data: namely interviews with 39 practitioners from 15 international humanitarian organisations. The paper also provides recommendations, based on best practices from both the humanitarian and private sectors, to enhance the supply chain planning capabilities of humanitarian organisations.