Over the past decade, humanitarian logistics has become a critical subsector of emergency response. Humanitarian logisticians face many challenges, due in part to the frequency, intensity, and impact of disasters, but also because investment in building capacity has been limited. There is also an opportunity to build on recognized synergies between commercial air transport and humanitarian logistics actors such as the inter-agency Logistics Cluster and national disaster management authorities. The quality, capability, and effectiveness of any humanitarian operation will be directly proportional to the capacity, competence, and preparedness of its logistics teams – particularly for air logistics. Since the Haiti Earthquake response in 2010, there is increased interest within the humanitarian community to form better multilateral partnerships for improved alignment with one another and with international aid logistics response standards and processes.

This guidance note aims to help NGOs:

• Reduce delays in obtaining approval to activate appropriate air assets;
• Minimize risks in accepting products that cannot be transported by air;
• Improve communications between field and head office partners, and reduce costs;
• Minimize the duplication of activities and potentially wasted resources;
• Improve the management of donor offers at the time of a disaster response;
• Remove bottlenecks at receiving air hubs/warehouses caused by the sending of unsolicited items;
• Improve the packaging and labeling of cargo and reduce losses;
• Streamline the work of Airlink and nonprofit partner response staff.

Download the full guidance note here.