Agility, TNT and UPS join forces to help the humanitarian sector
Agility, TNT and UPS, three leading logistics and transport companies, are joining forces to help the humanitarian sector with the logistics of emergency response to large-scale natural disasters. The World Economic Forum has facilitated these initiatives by offering a neutral platform for the development of partnerships between the humanitarian relief sector and member companies.
The first initiative is a set of ten high-level Guiding Principles designed to guide both the private sector and humanitarian community as they work together to provide effective relief to those in need. The second initiative is a unique, pioneering example of collaboration between several companies and the humanitarian relief sector.
The three companies and the United Nations Global Logistics Cluster today on guidelines and conditions for the intervention of joint ‘Logistics Emergency Teams’ (LETs). LETs’ support includes providing logistics specialists (e.g. airport coordination, airport managers and warehouse managers), logistics assets (e.g. warehouses, trucks, forklifts) and transportation services. LETs will intervene for the first three to six weeks following natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, or storms.
The companies stand ready to deploy Logistics Emergency Teams worldwide upon request from the United Nations Global Logistics Cluster. The nature of the request, local situations and the companies’ available resources will dictate the teams’ size and composition. As a general rule, they will serve in countries where member companies already operate, thereby leveraging their knowledge of local constraints. A committee representing the member companies is to answer requests from the Global Logistics Cluster led by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and decide on the deployment of LETs.
The World Economic Forum, member companies, and the United Nations today launched two initiatives to facilitate further and deeper private sector support to humanitarian relief operations. The first initiative is a set of ten high-level Guiding Principles designed to guide both the private sector and humanitarian community as they work together to provide effective relief to those in need. The second initiative is a unique, pioneering example of collaboration between several companies and the humanitarian relief sector. Agility, TNT and UPS, three leading logistics and transport companies, are joining forces to help the humanitarian sector with the logistics of emergency response to large-scale natural disasters. The World Economic Forum has facilitated these initiatives by offering a neutral platform for the development of partnerships between the humanitarian relief sector and member companies.
The three companies and the United Nations Global Logistics Cluster today on guidelines and conditions for the intervention of joint ‘Logistics Emergency Teams’ (LETs). LETs’ support includes providing logistics specialists (e.g. airport coordination, airport managers and warehouse managers), logistics assets (e.g. warehouses, trucks, forklifts) and transportation services. LETs will intervene for the first three to six weeks following natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, or storms.
The companies stand ready to deploy Logistics Emergency Teams worldwide upon request from the United Nations Global Logistics Cluster. The nature of the request, local situations and the companies’ available resources will dictate the teams’ size and composition. As a general rule, they will serve in countries where member companies already operate, thereby leveraging their knowledge of local constraints. A committee representing the member companies is to answer requests from the Global Logistics Cluster led by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and decide on the deployment of LETs.
The quality of the partnership was first demonstrated on the ground in August 2007 when Agility, TNT and UPS set up Logistics Emergency Teams in Indonesia during an operational exercise with the World Food Programme. In February 2007, UPS and TNT together offered free warehouses to the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depots run by the World Food Programme in Ghana and Panama.
