Past September, Solvoz’s CEO and founder Claire Barnhoorn was part of a round table on Supply Chain Management at the World Humanitarian Forum. In this article we will explain what Claire talked about. We will also show how Solvoz is helping to improve Supply Chain Management, especially in today’s time of COVID-19.

Background on Solvoz

Claire spent years in the field as an aid worker. After a while, she realised that humanitarians should be more responsible about how they deal with data. That moment she shifted from operations and logistics into data-driven technology in humanitarian operations. Eventually, this passion resulted into Solvoz, a movement for responsible procurement in aid, launching at the end of this month.

COVID-19

COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the world, and on the aid sector in specific. The pandemic has highlighted the longstanding need for procurement in the sector to be as responsible and efficient as possible. Technology has created many new possibilities, but in itself it will not be the golden bullet. Rather, it is the trigger that can enable improvements.

We have to define those improvements and emphasise what is required to achieve. We should be setting the scene; overcoming and crossing organisational boundaries and politics. Moreover, we have to state our goal and things we desire to improve and we can enable those by technology. COVID-19 has shown in many respects the fragility of our supply chains in aid. It has become obvious that our supply chains have to be re-evaluated.

Supply chain management

Many of those supply chains have been predominately EU or US centric, with major hubs located in Europe or the United States, as well as the heavy reliance of certain industries. We should push for more localisation in the supply chain and this needs to go beyond staffing. We should…

1. redesign and move away from relying predominantly on EU/US centric supply chain channels and design;
2. systematically include local suppliers and manufacturers of supplies or enable cash based support as a strategy for localisation;
3. share and allow ourselves to make use of information and knowledge systematically beyond our organisational boundaries in the supply chain – not only sustainably, but also responsibly and transparently – and thereby overcome organisational politics;
4. increase visibility of local solutions and shift from thinking in products – incorporate smart and/or local solutions based on a need to solve;
5. think in an enabling environment with partnerships instead of competition.

Indirect impact

Besides the impact on supply chains, we should not overlook the indirect impact, such as disruption of basic services and humanitarian assistance provision. One of those is the impact on material health. With restrictions on travel and gatherings, unreliable practices, and disrupted health provision, it threatens the lives of tens of thousands of people.

Maternal deaths and neonatal death rates are going up by an estimated 30 percent. Even if health systems are adapting and changing, with disruptions in supply chains, we still cannot provide quality maternal and child health care. We should be ready when, as new realities emerge the further into the pandemic, we adapt to new realities and adjust our systems.

The big positive is that there is an amazing wealth of expertise. Furthermore, humanitarian individuals can be characterised as very committed people., who are very much able to strengthen and enable responsible and sustainable supply chains in aid. We should choose to share our wealth of expertise and make use of connected and open systems.

What to do

We should move away from our agency specific procedures, for example specific designs, kit compositions and vocabulary. This complicates interoperable systems. We should allow ourselves to use one-another’s information and knowledge, operationalise partnerships, and tap into the wealth of knowledge. This needs to be done systematically, creating new ecosystems.

Knowledge should be shared. Technology has never been more ready and available to do so. We just have to commit to localisation, overcome institutional politics, reshape and show willingness into action. Technology can enable this and whatever is needed can be built, adjusted, adopted. We have to move beyond the concept of sustainable supply chains, we have to make them responsible. Taking sustainability, accountability, transparency and localisation into account.

Solvoz

In conclusion, responsible procurement is what Solvoz is all about. We have created a two-part ecosystem. These two parts are an open-access solutions catalogue and a tender platform. If you would like to receive more information about us, you can read more about Solvoz or contact us. Moreover, if you would like to receive more information about the forum, you can read the WHF outcome report. You can find more information on the round table on page 73.