Iraq News Now

The Logistics Emergency Teams

The Logistics Emergency Team (LET) comprises four global logistics and transportation companies: UPS, A.P. Moeller Maersk, Agility and DP World. The World Economic Forum facilitated the establishment of the LET partnership with World Food Programme (WFP) as lead of the Global Logistic Cluster (GLC) in 2005. The Logistics Cluster is part of the humanitarian cluster system, which was introduced to strengthen system-wide preparedness and response capacity to humanitarian emergencies, and provide clear leadership and accountability in humanitarian response. Because of its expertise in humanitarian logistics and its field capacity, WFP was chosen by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee to be the lead agency of the Logistics Cluster, and is hosting the Global Logistics Cluster Support Cell in its Headquarters in Rome. In 2018, the GLC has supported more than 550 humanitarian organisations with coordination, information management or logistics services in emergencies.

In its 13 years of action, the LET partnership has responded to 17 major emergencies and provided essential information to Logistics Capacity Assessments (LCAs) process to help humanitarians prepare for and respond to emergencies. When an emergency happens, regardless of the type of emergency, the Logistics Cluster can reach out to the LET companies for support. When local capacities for addressing the emergency needs have been exceeded, the Logistics Cluster set up a response to address key gaps in the supply of relief materials. The LET companies are called upon to support with key information, services, expertise, and contacts based on their existing set-up in the emergency region.

Expansion of the scope of LET

In 2017, the Logistics Cluster requested to expand the scope of the LET. Prior to this expansion, the LET only participated in emergency responses that were the result of a large natural disaster affecting more than 500,000 people. The LET was not activated in 2017. At the WEF meeting in Davos in January 2018, the LET partners agreed to expand the scope of their engagement in view of the change in the global security and humanitarian context during the last decade. The expansion is two-fold:

1) Logistics support to ‘complex emergencies’. These often are human-incurred crises that can escalate, e.g. due to different external hazards such as drought, or massive influx of refugees etc. About 80% of the Logistics Cluster’s resources are currently allocated to complex emergencies, which is a strong case for the positive impact of expanding the operational scope of LET.

2) Support to Preparedness activities, which have proven to be key for how quickly and effectively people can be reached when a disaster strikes.

For the LET, the expansion means that there are more regular requests for support, yet at a much smaller scale. One example in 2018, was a request for support with five reefer containers, which were needed to support the delivery of temperature sensitive relief materials for Yemen such as vaccines and cholera medicine.

In 2018, the LET supported preparedness activities, which are also different in nature than the traditional immediate disaster relief. In preparedness, the LET plays a key role in facilitating the engagement of the private sector in preparedness activities, thereby enabling a cross-sector collaboration on risk identification and mitigation. The LET companies utilise their networks to engage other key private sector actors, support with logistics information on the in-country logistics capacities and can help address identified capacity gaps through training. The companies may also benefit from the expansion by getting access to information on ‘early warning’ of disasters, complex emergencies and preparedness activities. This enables the companies to be better prepared to mitigate and handle the impact on the supply chain of a natural disaster or complex emergency. It also allows for a common cross-sector platform for advocacy on addressing the key identified weaknesses in a country supply set-up, which with the government, the private sector and humanitarian actors working together provides a stronger case for investment in key infrastructure, policies or other areas of concern.

Natural Disasters

Natural disasters can be caused by various types of events. They can be geophysical (i.e. earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, and volcanic activity), hydrological (avalanches and flooding), climatological (extreme temperatures, drought, and wildfires), meteorological (cyclones, storms, and wave surges), or biological (disease epidemics, pandemics, and insect/animal plagues). Most of these types of natural disasters strike with little or no warning, often leaving trails of destruction in their wake, and typically affect many lives. The LET now supports when the Logistics Cluster has identified crucial logistics gaps following natural disasters.

Where the LET is able, it supports with information, logistics services, and expertise to enable a more effective humanitarian response to help the people who have lost their homes, assets, and livelihoods.