Critical Humanitarian Challenge
Every day, International Aid Organizations (aka Non-Governmental Agencies: NGOs) move thousands of kilos of goods around the world to provide assistance to those in need. Traditionally, each NGO managed their own supply chain through a series of workflows and various tools: some automated, some isolated with local spreadsheets, and some manual. In 2009, UPS began an initiative with CARE and Aidmatrix to improve the data sharing capabilities within International Aid organizations like CARE to improve overall efficiency, cost reduction, and capacity.
When the Haiti earthquake happened in January, 2010, the magnitude of the event changed the relief world. The NGOs quickly saw that, when responding to this catastrophic event, those independent country-office systems were not connected enough to respond in the integrated way they needed for a multi-country response. In addition, there were no shared data standards between the NGOs that would have enabled them to coordinate more effectively together. UPS saw the opportunity to leverage the recent work with CARE and Aidmatrix and expand it to the broader community of International Aid Organizations so that a framework and infrastructure for data sharing could be established for the betterment of all involved.Program Benefits
- Common data standards for International Aid and Development organizations
- Community forum for the advancement of coordination between NGOs for catastrophic and regional disasters
- Joint planning and partnership to design the framework and infrastructure for NGO coordination
- Participation in the building of end-to-end supply chain solutions that meet the unique needs of the International Aid and Development community
- Bottom line: a solution for the International Aid community by the International Aid community