CHSCM 3.0 - Unit 1 - SCM in the Humanitarian World

The supply chain process involves the flow of information and goods between donors/suppliers and
beneficiaries. A supply chain will not be totally owned, managed, and operated by a humanitarian
organization. A number of different organizations will be involved in managing the total supply
chain. It is therefore necessary and important that people managing the supply chain for a
humanitarian organization develop relationships with other organizations, and work together with
those organizations, to ensure an effective and efficient supply chain process.
As well as developing relationships with other organizations, because of the impact of those
organizations on the performance of the supply chain, there are a number of specific reasons why
humanitarian organizations would develop relationships and work together to manage the supply
chain. These include:
• Provide quicker and/or greater
• Manage complex operations
responsiveness
• Avoid duplication of activities
• Share capacity and resources
• Gain access to goods and resources
• Access to skills and resources
• Gain access to supply chain networks
• Share skills and resources
As well as other organizations, a humanitarian organization’s supply chain will be managed by
different functions/departments within the organization. The performance of the supply chain will
also be impacted by the performance and behavior of those different functions/departments.
Developing relationships and working together with other functions and people is therefore
important.
In this module, we are going to look at how the performance of the supply chain can be affected by
different organizations and people, but importantly, how we can develop appropriate working
relationships with these different organizations and people.