What is it?
The humanitarian supply chain is the backbone of humanitarian aid operations. It manages the flow of goods and services needed for aid during crises. It involves the procurement, storage, transportation, and distribution of essential items to affected areas such as:
- food
- shelter items
- medicine
This network ensures that relief reaches people quickly and efficiently, saving lives by coordinating the movement of resources from suppliers to those in need, even in challenging circumstances.
Why is this important?
Humanitarian supply chains account for an estimated 60-80% of the humanitarian spending, this includes all the steps from procurement and transport to storage and delivery.
Humanitarian aid is based largely on parallel supply chains, operating separately. This can lead to unnecessary duplication of efforts, higher costs and in some cases slower delivery. Against the current backdrop of growing humanitarian needs and shrinking resources, a collective shift is not only desirable, but necessary.
A more coordinated and collaborative approach - from procurement to last-mile delivery – is key to ensuring that aid reaches more people, faster and more reliably, including in the hardest-to-access areas.
In practice, this means:
- procuring, transporting and warehousing jointly across organisations, pooling resources and expertise to reduce costs, avoid duplication and deliver more for every € spent
- coordinating pre-positioning of stocks before crises hit, not after
- sharing data and use of common logistics platforms across the sector
- empowering and facilitating local actors to take a greater role
- reducing the environmental impact of humanitarian operations
How are we helping?
In 2022, the EU launched the humanitarian logistics policy, setting out a shared vision for more effective and efficient humanitarian logistics. This policy document called for a paradigm shift of the way humanitarian supply chains are designed and managed, starting a broader sector-wide conversation on the need for reform.
In 2024, the humanitarian leadership group on supply chain (HLGSC), an initiative, led by the EU brought together UN agencies, the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, NGOs, donors, the private sector and academia to drive the reform of the supply chain system.
Throughout 2025, the HLGSC held workshops on:
- procurement
- environmental sustainability
- digitalisation
- preparedness and localisation
- identifying concrete actions
The workshops were co-led by:
France, UNHCR, WFP, NRC, WEF, IRC, UNICEF, IFRC, DRC and Kuehne Foundation (in an advisory role).
This process culminated with a high-level conference on Humanitarian Supply Chain on 10 December 2025 in Brussels, gathering representatives from 63 organisations that endorsed a set of conclusions, and agreed on a series of concrete steps for implementation.
This page was last updated on 27 May 2026