CHEP is helping the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) streamline its supply chain in order to better assist displaced families.
The UNHCR's global supply chain network will be assessed with the purpose of increasing efficiency and reducing costs.
“The efficiency of our supply chain is often literally a matter of life and death for the refugees and families we serve, so any improvements we can make could have a massive impact,” Vicente Escribano, head of UNHCR’s supply management logistic service, said.
“We asked CHEP if and how improvements could be made to improve our logistics and associated costs. Working with CHEP is a great opportunity for UNHCR, and CHEP providing its resources and expertise on a voluntary basis is a real bonus.”
The UNHCR was established in 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly to help Europeans displaced by World War Two. Today, the agency is mandated to lead and coordinate activities worldwide to protect and seek durable solutions for refugees. The budget has grown from US$300,000 in its first year to more than US$5 billion in 2014.
CHEP has provided its Plant Network Optimization (PNO) team for the study, which is reviewing the current state of UNHCR resources to reduce the lead time required to service refugee camps. Currently CHEP’s PNO team is conducting an analysis of UNHCR’s supply chain network in Africa.
UNHCR maintains a network of seven global stockpiles managed from distribution centres located in Copenhagen (Denmark), Amman (Jordan), Dubai (UAE), Nairobi (Kenya), Isaka (Tanzania), Douala (Cameroon) and Accra (Ghana). If needed, UNHCR can ship core relief items (CRIs) from these stockpiles to assist up to 600,000 people within 72 hours. In 2014, UNHCR assisted over 15 million people in need.
The UNHCR study involves multi-country, air, sea and road transportation and multiple data sources – factors which greatly increase the scale and complexity of the study.
The study will be completed by late 2015, with findings and recommendations presented to UNHCR shortly afterwards.
