Our Work

WFP always ensures that in an emergency food assistance is delivered as quickly as possible. It has many ways of doing this. One is through its emergency logistics team ALITE, adept at helping field operations respond. Another is by tapping into several ‘virtual’ food stocks. So-called stand-by arrangements with donors and NGOs are also essential. Finally, a key element in the agency's rapid response is the WFP-managed network of UN Humanitarian Response Depots. These are hubs, positioned near disaster-prone areas around the world, where emergency supplies are stored in readiness.

ALITE

Alite stands for Augmented Logistics Intervention Team for Emergencies. It is the WFP Logistics' unit tasked with providing rapid and effective emergency services to support the Programme's field operations. The unit works with logistics staff in the field to provide them with urgently-needed personnel, equipment and high-energy food. Among the situations where Alite comes into its own are:

• Civil-Military Cooperation: ALITE coordinates the use of military and civil defence assets in humanitarian operations and develops WFP and inter-agency frameworks for civil-military cooperation.
• Special Operations: When WFP Logistics needs help to overcome logistical bottlenecks, ALITE will step in to assist the country office.

'Virtual' food stocks

From the moment food aid is collected from donor countries, it can take four months to reach the mouths of the hungry. But in times of crisis, WFP can call on a number of quicker solutions.

• Development Stocks: WFP Logistics can draw upon a worldwide network of development projects. In emergencies, food stocks assembled for these projects become forward positioned contingency reserves. WFP Logistics can re-route or borrow this food.
• Stocks Afloat: with WFP Logistics chartering between 200-250 ships each year, a substantial amount of food aid is either being loaded, discharged or plying the seas at any given moment. Ships can be diverted at short notice to meet crisis needs.
• In-Country Borrowing: thanks to bilateral agreements with recipient countries, WFP Logistics is often able to draw on in-country food reserves to meet emergency needs. The technique was used with great success in the 1992 southern African drought.

Standby arrangements

Donor countries and NGOs provide WFP with experts equipped to deal with the logistics of supplying the hungry poor with the right food at the right time. They help WFP staff to run port and railway operations; repair roads, bridges and airstrips; organise airlifts of food; manage fleets of WFP trucks; communicate in the field; or repair a generator. These are Standby personnel and support teams. They can provide a crucial surge in capacity in personnel and facilities and are fundamental to WFP’s ability to respond.

Standby Partners may provide base camps that are set up near the scene of a disaster or services such as mine clearance.

UNHRD

The UN Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) is a WFP logistics network that serves both WFP and the broader humanitarian community. The network allows WFP to pre-position emergency supplies and support equipment at strategically placed 'hubs'. These hubs are located in Ghana, UAE, Malaysia, Panama and Italy.

The UNHRD hubs are within airport complexes, close to ports and the main national/international roads and thus ensure multi-modal transport. Because of this pro-active positioning, when emergencies strike, relief items can be delivered to the affected areas anywhere in the world within 24 to 48 hours.

WFP Logistics also keeps pre-positioned stocks of equipment and food at its depot in Cambodia. Learn more