When disaster strikes, aid workers and NGOs are on the ground within a matter of hours. While governments and charities around the world are arranging the dispatch of humanitarian aid from around the world, the next challenge for those on the ground is where to store it.
Analyst Insight: Supply chain challenges were plentiful during Superstorm Sandy. Both physical and electronic supply chain operations were disrupted. Private sector operators responded with creative solutions, and public sector entities were better prepared than in previous disasters, but recovery will be a slow and arduous process. Approaches to ensuring resiliency in the face of such events cannot be singular in nature. Actions taken during response and recovery have far reaching implications for supply chains.
- Jock Menzies, President, American Logistics aid Network
The American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN) has been supporting Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) and emergency management agencies across the Mid-Atlantic and northeastern U.S. in their response to Superstorm Sandy. ALAN continues to engage private industry and supply-chain companies to help fulfill needs of these disaster relief organizations.
The Coca-Cola Company and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria say they plan to leverage the company's global distribution system to help government and non-governmental organizations deliver critical medicines to remote parts of the world, beginning in rural Africa.
To celebrate National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, the C.H. Robinson Worldwide Foundation has created the C.H. Robinson Worldwide Foundation Scholarship Program for Truckload Contract Carriers.
No one appears completely happy with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new rule on tracking the presence of conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in high-tech and other types of products. Comments on SEC's action range from outright opposition to quibbling over details.