Two decades ago logistics was rarely a subject discussed in the executive suites of large corporations.

Logistics and supply chain management underpin responses to humanitarian crises.

As a logistician, have you ever first learned of a new project when the purchase requisitions appeared on your desk? Or received a vehicle request 20 minutes before it was urgently required?

Effective programmes require efficient support functions. Logistics is a key support function and needs to be incorporated into planning and management decisions from inception to close-down.

Typically, humanitarian agencies tend to underestimate the importance of logistics.

The Gujarat earthquake was a watershed for IFRC and more specifically for its Logistics and Resource Mobilisation Department. It was the first time that all IFRC's preparedness tools, mechanisms and practices, developed to better manage emergency supply chains, had come together.

There are two distinct categories of emergencies - those for which you are prepared and others for which you are not.

For the last eighteen months in Afghanistan, UNICEF has been involved in one of the largest education operations in the history of the organization.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is one of the most inhospitable, insecure and operationally complex countries of the world in which to deliver humanitarian relief.

Uganda's 17-year civil conflict entered a new phase in mid 2002 when the Ugandan army launched Operation Iron Fist and entered southern Sudan with the objective of finally wiping out the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

The recent protracted crisis in southern Africa stretched the ingenuity and capacity of the international community.

Logistics links all the stakeholders in the relief delivery process.

Complex emergencies and NGO response mechanisms entail rapid deployment of staff and resources, immediate recruitment and accelerated distribution of relief supplies.