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Contributions from
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Focus
Thomas Loster: Untapped wealth: ways to advance climate protection
Stephan Kunz: Raising labour standards in Bangladesh
Interview with Barbara Unmüssig: “Eroding statehood“
Dominikus Collenberg: paradigm shift
Jan Martin Witte and Thorsten Benner: Benefits and limits of UN partnerships with the private sector
Carola Torti: aid: logistics giant DHL supports UN in times of disaster
10/2006
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Airport bottlenecks
When disaster strikes, rapid response is vital. Getting help to those in need fast means overcoming massive transportation and logistics challenges. Under a partnership agreement, express shipper and logistics provider DHL places expertise and equipment at the disposal of the United Nations.
[ By Carola Torti ]
Disaster scenario Iran: a severe earthquake hits the provincial town of Bam and surrounding villages in December 2003. More than 40,000 people die, tens of thousands are homeless. Aid consignments are flown in from all over the world but some relief efforts fail due to poor coordination. Some aircraft are refused permission to land; others discharge their cargo on the taxiway because they cannot reach the terminal.
“The airport was totally jammed in no time at all, relief supplies lay around unsorted, there were considerable losses due to improper handling,” says Chris Weeks, director for humanitarian aid at DHL, a subsidiary of the German group Deutsche Post World Net. “That was when the idea dawned that private-sector expertise might be useful in such situations.”
In recent years, natural catastrophes have increased. Accordingly, so have relief missions. Be it an earthquake, a hurricane or a tsunami – in an emergency, every second counts. Whether and how fast aid arrives in a remote area may make the difference between life and death. To improve the way airport bottlenecks are managed in the future, DHL offered the UN its support. In December, the company forged a strategic partnership with UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and OCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs).
“Logistics is often the linchpin in disaster relief,” said UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland. “Getting help to people in need is critical and for this we need a smooth supply chain. Agreements with the private sector can help make this happen.”
Not just cash donations
DHL supports the UN with expertise, manpower, equipment and transport of staff. “We do not want to simply give money; we want to make a sustainable contribution in kind, by doing what we do best – manage complex logistical processes,” Susanne Meier explains. In her capacity as director for corporate social responsibility at Deutsche Post, she calls UNDP and OCHA “perfect partners” because of their “relevant coordinating function in the aftermath of major disasters”.
In the meantime, DHL has set up two Disaster Response Teams (DRTs), one for Asia, one for the Americas. Each draws on a pool of around 80 DHL specialists who have volunteered to work on the humanitarian project in addition to their normal duties. The DRTs stand ready for rapid deployment in an emergency to support the UN at airports close to the disaster areas. The creation of additional teams is under consideration.
The projected duration of missions is three weeks because experience has shown that flight activity beyond that time-frame returns to a more normal level. Team members include experts in diverse areas of logistics, such as storage, information technology and controlling – but also forklift operators. The members of the DRT Asia come from various countries and cultures across the region, which should help overcome language barriers and other social and cultural hurdles in an emergency. They have also received First Aid training and instructions on how to deal with military personnel.
From UN staff, the teams have learned how to work effectively on the ground. For example, existing institutions should be used wherever possible and the communities affected should be included in decision-making. The DRTs need to assess situations correctly – despite the chaos and hectic nature of a crisis. What is needed? How can a provisional warehouse be organised? If incoming supplies are not systematically recorded, sorted and stored, they are unlikely to reach those in need fast.
Mutual advantage
“We are an international service provider with around 500,000 employees worldwide and social responsibility enshrined in our Group Values,” says Deutsche Post manager Susanne Meier. But the company's commitment also has a commercial dimension. As “clients increasingly pay attention to our approach to sustainability”, humanitarian commitment underpins enterprise value. What is more, Deutsche Post knows the partnership with the UN organisations also boosts the motivation of staff, which can combine their regular duties with humanitarian work.
As a rule, the UN prefers financial aid to donations in kind. Nonetheless, UN Coordinator Jan Egeland, who is in favour of more cooperation with the private sector, speaks of “specialised capacities that can add great value to the emergency response capacity of humanitarian and development organisations”. DHL’s input at airports in an emergency meets a need that has long been identified by the UN, he argues, “at no additional cost to the Organisation”. How much DHL actually spends on the DRTs is not disclosed.
As Chris Weeks explains, DHL profits from being involved in the UN system: “For example, there is a different kind of trust shown by relief organisations. We don’t want the whole job; we just want to be one of the tools in the UN toolbox.” The Singapore-based DRT for Asia and the Pacific has been ready for action since April and was on its first mission in Indonesia a few weeks later. In May, on the eve of the hurricane season, its American counterpart was established in Miami. Setting up a DRT for the Arab States and Africa is also being considered with OCHA.
The DRTs are new, but some of the DHL personnel already have acquired disaster experience elsewhere – as volunteers in teams working in the aftermath of the Christmas tsunami in Colombo, for example, or helping the victims of last year's earthquake in Pakistan. Routine is important, because every emergency calls for effective improvisation. No training seminar provides patent solutions for every conceivable situation.
In Northern Pakistan, many mountain villages last year were cut off from the outside world. Relief packages were dropped from US military helicopters but many of them burst on impact with the ground 35 metres below. A DHL volunteer had the simple but effective idea of packing emergency supplies in the strong polypropylene bags that DHL uses for loose cargo. DHL stuffed 500 such bags a day with mattresses, food and medicine.
Now that the Response Teams are established in cooperation with OCHA, DHL wants to extend its engagement as a UN partner into disaster prevention. Here, DHL know-how, manpower and materials could be useful, for instance, in disseminating public information. The UNDP has identified a need for greater public awareness and preparedness in potential disaster areas – a need that could be met by harnessing the logistics provider's marketing skills.
Carola Torti
works as a freelance journalist and translator in Frankfurt am Main.
c.torti@t-online.de
Links:
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
http://ochaonline2.un.org/businesscontributions
Deutsche Post World Net
http://www.dpwn.de
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