Keeping humanitarian supply chains moving in times of crisis

Rising to the challenge

Sayid Kunhipurayil, Emergency & Relief Logistics

There’s no greater feeling than being part of a team that’s saved 400,000 lives. Here in our ‘international humanitarian city’ in Dubai, we’re working with 500 people across 70 different nationalities to deliver crucial aid. It is not an easy task, and the last decade has been unprecedented.

But like every area of logistics, we must adapt. That’s why Kuehne+Nagel works with government agencies to plan routes and distribute healthcare. For 40 years, our robust networks have been responding to conflicts, natural disasters and pandemics–building resilience for new ones. It’s why we’re trusted around the world to deliver life-saving healthcare, no matter how great the challenge.

Why emergency relief matters

The case for humanitarian aid has never been stronger. In 2024, the European Commission published figures illustrating how risks to human life have risen in the past 10 years. Climate change, political instability and conflict were all contributing factors.

In this year alone, the Global Humanitarian Overview posed equally concerning stats. By June 2025, almost 300 million people needed humanitarian aid. This is where logistics partnerships play such a pivotal role–working with emergency relief teams to respond to and prevent global crises.

A history of global humanitarian aid

Humanitarian aid covers pandemics, conflicts or natural disasters. Teams deliver anything from developmental work to life-saving healthcare. The concept dates back to the mid-19^th century. After witnessing wounded soldiers in the Battle of Solferino, Henry Dunant proposed a relief agency that would become the International Red Cross.

By the 1960s, humanitarian aid was systematised. From 1970 onwards, overseas development accounted for 0.7% of the gross national income for many Western countries, as well as Arab states and Japan. During the 1990s, this professionalisation reached its peak. In 1998, the United Nations gave its permission for multiple agencies to follow the same standardised approach.

At Kuehne+Nagel, we have spent 40 years building a dedicated emergency relief segment. We offer fourth-party logistics to government agencies, partnering with freight forwarders and shipping lines.  We also set up the non-profit Kuehne Foundation in 1976 to facilitate global logistics, personalised medicine and climate action.

The aid sector today

Emergency relief tends to conjure images of food, water and shelter. But it’s critical not to overlook healthcare commodities. Vaccines and essential medicines are central to redeveloping areas hit by devastation.

These commodities have been life-saving in a time when funding is being cut, while global disasters have shown an upward trend since the 1940s. Crises like these also have economic effects. In the US alone, climate events from 1980 to 2024 have exceeded $2 trillion in recovery costs.

But there is hope. Since the 90s, standardised commodities have helped to save millions more lives. Whereas in the past, organisations may have sent the wrong products, today we have interagency health kits (IAHKs) and ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTFs).

This has led to a steep decline in mortality rates, dropping 49% between 2014 and 2023. Much of this comes from our collective resilience: drawing on predictive tools to reduce the impacts of a crisis. This is where Kuehne+Nagel excels.

Humanitarian supply chains for global crisis response

At Kuehne+Nagel, we work with humanitarian agencies to deliver life-saving aid by road, sea or air. Our logistics services are reactive and proactive. We analyse the sector to predict what might happen and how we can support it.

In practice, this comprises strategically located facilities throughout the world. For example, our warehouse in Dubai helps with the storage, replenishment and distribution of emergency kits, working throughout the UAE and Europe. Meanwhile, our facilities in South Sudan move goods across Africa.

Alongside warehousing and distribution, we operate global control towers. These give us round-the-clock visibility to partner with pharma and healthcare colleagues, as well as air freight, sea freight and project logistics companies. Every emergency response has a method, supported by local customs knowledge and experts on the ground 24/7.

Our work in action

Effective humanitarian response relies on preparedness. Kuehne+Nagel keeps the supply chain continuous through technology, human expertise and a global network.

• Technology: Using advanced cold chain storage to stockpile lifesaving medicines and replenish while air and sea freight makes its journey.
• Human expertise: Working with agencies to calculate how many pallets we can transport and how many beneficiaries we can serve.
• Global networks: Advanced customs knowledge and round-the-clock response teams, helping distribute aid in as little as 24 hours.

This has powered large-scale campaigns, from delivering vaccines to insecticidal nets. Typical delivery volumes are 3,000 shipping containers or 4,000 tonnes of air freight per year. In 2020, one of our most challenging missions saw a charter flight leaving India to distribute vaccines across seven stops in West Africa.

Keeping supply chains moving with tech

Spotlight: Interagency health kits (IAHKs)

While transport is essential, so too is the aid itself. We gauge regular agency feedback to improve kit contents and save more lives. These World Health Organisation-approved kits may contain anything from basic paracetamol and PPE to specialist malaria or Ebola medicine. They also vary in size, calculated on community need and the distribution network. In some cases, a camp of 90,000 people can be served with just 10 kits.

We create a kitting component list, tagging them with specific labels and assigning pallet numbers. This ensures we can transport the maximum number of pallets and serve as many beneficiaries as possible.

In some cases, IAHKs are preventative, rather than reactive. For example, we might plan for a suspected cholera outbreak. Each kit contains innovative products such as ‘PlumpyNut’ RUTFs, offering high-calorie protein with a long shelf life.

Conclusion

To date, the global humanitarian sector has saved more than 95 million lives. These high volumes and improved mortality rates are thanks to greater resilience.

This preparedness allows us to cover 60% of the world’s population in 8 hours, serving thousands of beneficiaries in one shipment. But while the top-level figures are impressive, we must not overlook the human impact.

Access to tailormade IAHKs helps us address unique healthcare conditions. Faster developmental responses get economies back on their feet, restoring families. Sustainable routes reduce the impact of carbon emissions for a greener future.

In an ideal world, there would be no need for humanitarian aid. In a challenging one, we can use our expertise, partnerships and technology to prepare for crises and save more lives.

This is an example of our long-form whitepaper writing. Get in touch to find out more.

Photo by Mathurin NAPOLY / matnapo on Unsplash