As of today, Doctors with Africa CUAMM is a partner of United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD), a network of six UN humanitarian emergency response hubs part of the World Food Program (WFP). This agreement gives CUAMM free access to many of the agency’s services to respond more quickly to emergency situations in Africa.
UNHRD is among the services that the UN World Food Program makes available to the global humanitarian community through six logistical hubs in six strategic points in the world: Brindisi (Italy), Accra (Ghana), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Panama City (Panama), and Las Palmas (Spain). This network offers partner organizations a wide range of logistical services for emergency preparedness and response, including storage, purchase, and shipping, letting different agencies and humanitarian organizations respond quickly in crisis scenarios around the world.
Doctors with Africa CUAMM already has deep familiarity with African health systems and is able to intervene even in emergency situations when needed, as happened with Ebola in Sierra Leone and with the Cyclone Idai in Mozambique. Now it can count on UNHRD services to respond even more quickly and effectively in humanitarian crises.
This agreement is all the more important right now. In recent weeks, Doctors with Africa CUAMM has started to equip its hospitals to fight the spread of coronavirus in the already challenging context of Africa.
Through Doctors with Africa CUAMM’s partnership with UNHRD, it will have access to warehouses in Brindisi, Dubai, and Accra to store its material to send to the field with facilitated logistics. It will also be able to procure basic necessities with more efficient procurement procedures recognized by the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO). This is a major step for transparency and efficiency given the challenges that the coronavirus and other possible emergencies pose for Africa.
