Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Aidmatrix's Shari Temple a Panel Speaker on Rethinking Traditional Aid – Cash Transfers, Working with Market Systems

Aidmatrix's Shari Temple spoke on a panel at the Humanitarian Logistics Summit in Paris in April. The Summit was titled Progress Through Partnership, and was hosted by the Humanitarian Logistics Association. The Humanitarian Logistics Summit 2014 “Progress through Partnership” brought together a wide range of stakeholders to discuss the latest thinking on potential synergies between the Aid, Commercial and Academic sectors. The goal of the summit was to discuss what is new and on the horizon for humanitarian logistics.

Ms. Temple was invited to speak as a thought leader on the panel "What's New for Humanitarian Logistics", hosted by George Fenton of the Humanitarian Logistics Association. She spoke, among other topics, about Cash Transfer Programs, and their impact on logistics professionals and supply chain management solutions. Ms. Temple spoke from the Information Technology (IT) side of humanitarian logistics, while others on the panel spoke about the benefits of cash transfers programs from the field perspective, and about what is needed for more market analysis.

Other panel discussions at the summit included important topics such as delivering aid in contexts of conflict, reflections from the recent typhoon response in the Philippines, and the role and need for vocational training and logistics capacity building of national personnel.


View the full agenda for the Summit

Monday, April 7, 2014

The UPS Foundation Invests More Than $9 Million In Grants And Support For Global Community Safety

Today, the UPS Foundation announced that they are donating more than $9 million in grants "toward community safety initiatives focused on enhancing disaster response, recovery, and emergency preparedness through enhanced technology infrastructure and road safety initiatives." Aidmatrix is one of the many beneficiaries of the Global Community Safety initiative of the UPS Foundation, as well as Aidmatrix partner CARE.

The following are a few excerpts from the announcement:

"To underscore the importance of humanitarian supply chain capabilities, UPS will deploy UPS Relief Link, humanitarian supply chain solutions that strengthen the tracking of critical relief supplies. UPS is working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR) to provide better visibility of the journey of urgently needed items through the last mile of delivery to refugees."

"In addition to making the UPS Relief Link program more widely available, The UPS Foundation is also awarding $1 million to CARE, a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty, to implement the Aidmatrix supply chain management platform, called SCM4Good. These technology tools include commodity tracking, asset management and fleet optimization modules to increase the visibility of global inventories, thus speeding relief and recovery efforts."

"The UPS Foundation's community safety grants will support several organizations that provide humanitarian relief, totaling more than $6.6 million and include:
  • The Aidmatrix Foundation, Good360, UNHCR, UNICEF and the World Food Programme will receive grants that benefit technology and supply chain initiatives to improve back-end processes and tracking behind humanitarian relief efforts.
  • The American Red Cross, CARE, MedShare, National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, Operation Hope, Salvation Army and St. Bernard Project will benefit from ongoing support for disaster relief efforts, including providing food, shelter and other essential recovery needs."

Read the full announcement

Friday, April 4, 2014

Aidmatrix Participates on Panel at Humanitarian Logistics Summit in Paris

Aidmatrix's Shari Temple will be speaking on a panel at the Humanitarian Logistics Summit in Paris on April 4. The Summit is titled Progress Through Partnership, and is hosted by the Humanitarian Logistics Association. The Humanitarian Logistics Summit 2014 “Progress through Partnership” will bring together a wide range of stakeholders to discuss the latest thinking on potential synergies between the Aid, Commercial and Academic sectors.

Ms. Temple will be participating on the panel "What's New for Humanitarian Logistics", hosted by George Fenton of the Humanitarian Logistics Association. She will be speaking about Cash Transfer Programs, and their impact on logistics professionals and supply chain management solutions. Here is a brief overview of what Ms. Temple will be covering in her presentation:

Cash Transfer Programs Impact 

  • Cash will never replace goods in all situations
  • Still need external supplies after a disaster has wiped out the local markets and supplies
  • Still need external supplies when items are not available from local markets
 View the full agenda for the Summit

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

UPS Collaboration with Nonprofit Aidmatrix Accelerates Technology for Humanitarian Relief

The shipping company helps a humanitarian relief nonprofit build supply management technology and deliver emergency aid. Read the story on the web


As a global leader in supply chain management, UPS has the technology and experience to help aid organizations deliver life-saving supplies where they're needed most. The company's partnership with nonprofit Aidmatrix helps mobilize more than $1.5 billion in aid each year, impacting the lives of more than 65 million people around the world.

Aidmatrix applies supply chain management technologies to help leading organizations deliver goods, money and services to some of the most challenging environments in the world, like conflicted regions and areas hit by natural disasters.

In this video, Keith Thode, who leads the daily operations of Aidmatrix, and Melis Jones, vice president of programs, join Dale Herzog of UPS to explain the benefits of their collaboration. UPS provides financial support, employee commitment and transportation assets to help Aidmatrix in their efforts. Additionally, UPS provided their logistics expertise in the development of a warehouse management system.

"In the end, these supply chains of giving that we're creating will do more than just deliver aid out to people who need it," says Thode. "Now, the change built will empower those people at the end to be producers into the chain. That will get them past the point of needing aid and really have them contributing to the economy, and therefore changing their lives."

Learn more about UPS humanitarian relief efforts at ups.com/responsibility.