World: Strengthening Interoperability and Collaboration in Humanitarian Supply Chains - May 2026

Country: World Source: HELP Logistics Please refer to the attached file. The procurement, transportation, storage, and distribution of relief supplies account for some of the largest expenses for United Nations (UN) agencies. As humanitarian needs increase and funding becomes more constrained, the performance of humanitarian supply chains has become a strategic concern. However, most agencies continue to manage their supply chains independently, resulting in fragmented systems that constrain inter-agency collaboration and limit opportunities for cost savings, economies of scale, and operational efficiencies. Over the last 20 years, several UN agencies have launched supply chain collaboration initiatives, ranging from joint air transportation to shared warehousing and information exchange. These initiatives reflect growing recognition that collaboration can deliver measurable efficiency gains. Institutional donors have actively encouraged such models, and this emphasis has intensified in recent years. In 2025, the UN Secretary-General reinforced this approach through the UN80 reform framework, explicitly calling for deeper inter-agency collaboration, including in supply chain functions. While many existing initiatives have delivered tangible benefits, progress toward systemwide interoperability has remained uneven, and the full efficiency potential of collaboration has yet to be realized. The reasons for this gap remain insufficiently understood. To address this gap, HELP Logistics funded a research project examining why supply chain collaboration advances in some areas and faces barriers in others, and how interoperability across UN agencies could be expanded in practice. The project seeks to identify key drivers and barriers to collaboration, map existing shared services and interopera...

Original source: Relief Web