Humanitarian supply chain management (SCM) is defined by the IFRC as ‘acquiring and delivering requested supplies and services at the places and times they are needed, whilst ensuring best value for money; in the immediate aftermath of any [type of] disaster or reconstruction situation, including items that are vital for survival, such as food, water, temporary shelter and medicine’. Humanitarian Logistics is part and parcel of the wider humanitarian SCM. Recent research has shown a need for multi-dimensional understanding of humanitarian SCM. Both from a technical perspective (logistics, information gathering, warehousing, pre-positioning, transportation, distribution) as well as from a strategic perspective (decision making, co-ordination, inter-organisational co-operation, public-private partnerships, contribution to long-term recovery through knowledge transfer) conceptualisation and field-sustained research has been conducted for the benefit of producing deeper knowledge of global humanitarian SCM. With an estimated 22 billion USD spent in 2013 on humanitarian aid (GHA report 2014; calculations based on both public as well as private spending) in response to natural disasters and complex emergencies one can easily see the need for professional and efficient humanitarian SCM, which is involved in 80% of all relief activities. read more