NGO
Supply Feature: Big opportunities in Indonesia
Joining Aceh's supply chain
Responding to field demand
Remedying incredibly difficult transport
Engineering contractors important to supply
Role for NGO forwarders
Networking between aid supply chain partners
Non government aid organisations (NGOs) became an instant potential new force in the region's international trade after massive global donations following the Asian tsunami which struck Indian Ocean coastal communities on 26 December 2004.
Now into the reconstruction phase, Indonesia has some $8 billion funds from NGO tsunami donors, multilateral sources like the Asian Development Bank and World Bank and bilateral support like the A$1 billion Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Reconstruction and Development (AIPRD).
Indonesia's Northern-most Aceh province was by far the worst hit, suffering the Force Nine earthquake that caused the tsunami waves, then a repeat earthquake horror on Easter Monday 28 March 2005, which hit Nias, Simeulue and other islands off the west coast.
For the approval of rehabilitation and reconstruction projects, Indonesia established BRR - the Bureau of Rehabilitation and Reconstruction for Aceh and Nias, based in Banda Aceh. It overseas approval applied for by several hundred local and foreign NGOs, Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies, UN and scores of other agencies,
BRR expects the NGOs to build 38,000 new dwellings this year, on funds from last year's massive tsunami relief donations globally. With the 40,000 new dwellings BRR will oversee on bilateral and multilateral funding, this makes 78,000 total for calendar 2006. The estimated overall need in Aceh is for 120,000 permanent houses, which BRR now hopes to be completed by mid-2007.
Of the first $4.4bn in 650 projects approved by BRR, the funding was:
. NGOs $1.5bn
. Government donors $1.1bn
. Multilateral donors $1.1bn
. Bilateral donors $695m
The sector allocation was:
. Infrastructure and housing projects accounted for $2bn (45pc)
. Health, education, and other social $1.3bn (30pc).
. Agriculture, fisheries and other Livelihood projects $581m (13pc).
. Cross-sectional (environment, governance and finance) $482m (11pc).
As a recent Australia Red Cross report commented: "To rebuild destroyed villages or towns requires everything to happen simultaneously to help establish social services, put the necessary infrastructure in place such as roads, schools, houses, hospitals, water and sanitation, while ensuring all the time that affected people are at the centre of decision-making. The challenges of coordinating this work across governments, UN, aid agencies and affected communities are enormous."
A good place for seeing BRR applications and approvals by NGOs is http://www.e-aceh-nias.org where tender opportunities for suppliers, engineering and other service contractors can also be seen.
With projects approved, NGOs in Aceh are trying to source as much locally in Indonesia as they can. But the in-flow from overseas continues. The major congestion from import containers awaiting clearance at Belawan has fallen from this year's peak on 14 January, when the container terminal had 232 containers stalled in delivery.
Belawan, the port for Medan on North Sumatra's west coast, is the main container feed joining Indonesia's road supply chain into Aceh, which doesn't have its own container-capable hub.
Belawan has container transhipping from Singapore, where Samudera's "Sea Space" operates four day cycles with subsidiary Silkargo Logistics (Singapore) providing the bookings. Another ship Jong Yue 8 is weekly.
Most containers are unloaded at Medan, as the road freight moves loose or on pallets "Indonesian-style" in road vans of eight to 12 tonnes capacity.
The NGOs buy on delivery in containers at Belawan, so are
responsible for the on-delivery to main centres and field stockpiles.
The larger NGOs have buying offices in Medan to organise the shipments, while smaller ones order in through UN agency offices there. NGOs, UN agencies and foreign military detachments made Medan their communications centre during the emergency and have stayed since, because it had the region's only container-operating port (Belawan) and sea, air and road hub connections to the rest of Indonesia and abroad.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
(IFRC) has more than 20 national members operating where the Asian tsunamis
hit. Australian Red Cross, for example, put an initial six ERUs into Aceh, with
six-month food rations for 22,000 families the first supply challenge. This was
met by land supplies and ships at anchor, with people on board making the
ration packs ready for uplift and delivery by helicopters. In addition to the
ERU logistician radioing or mobile-phoning in requirements, the ERUs have
experts for basic health care and water and sanitation.
Society and NGOs' rehabilitation and reconstruction teams came in on the clean-up phase could call in trucks, front-end loaders and other equipment from the numerous foreign military groups.
ICRC, the International Committee of Red Cross, hired its first landing craft (LCT) two weeks after the tsunami hit, delivering typical emergency supplies - blankets, drinking water, diesel and tarpaulins to shelter 40,000 people. Logistics coordination was centred from a base in Singapore, supported by the Singapore Red Cross (SRC). Meulaboh's relief was largely thanks to this facility, working closely with the three Singapore Navy's 6,000-ton helicopter landing/supply ships that went there.
A year later into rebuilding, IFRC and members expect to build 30,024 permanent dwelling for the Acehnese - and had completed about a 1,000 with 1,000 under construction as end-January 2006.
In an end-March statement, IFRC affirmed it would complete more than 1,750 steel-framed transitional shelters of the 20,000 intended for Aceh's more vulnerable families. IFRC began supplying the 270 square feet lightweight units after December 2005, when it and United Nations flew the first two into Banda Aceh for training purposes ahead of the rest coming by sea from North America.
Oxfam, its international partners, and other NGOs is helping communities improve their shelters and giving advice on the best ways to do this, such as the use of concrete flooring and improving drainage to deal with low-lying, easily flooded land. The Oxfam NGOs aim to build 4,000 earth-quake resistant dwellings by 2007, with local and overseas-sourced building materials.
Oxfam's international procurement is substantially done in the UK, but Oxfam UK was happy for Oxfam Australia to put the timber to tender for Australian sources. The fact that they sourced from sustainable pine plantations helped member suppliers of Aust Plantation Products and Paper Industry Council (A3P) win the contract. Starting last December, the timber goes in 650 cu m consignments in 40 foot containers to Belawan via Singapore, where it is unloaded and on-carried by LCTs to Aceh west coast locations. The first consignment was in December 2005. All consignments are paid for by Oxfam donor funding.
The Aceh supply of Australian-milled pine followed the success of consignments totalling 8,500 cu m in 40 foot containers to Columbo. Unlike in Aceh where only Oxfam UK was the consignee, several organisations building houses in Sri Lanka shared in the supply, joining their donor funds to pay for it - Oxfam UK, IOM, Caritas, GOAL (the Irish NGO) and Islamic Relief.
Oxfam photos courtesy of Jim Holmes/Oxfam
Reconstruction became possible society members and NGOs as they got
building equipment and materials, despite incredibly difficult transport
facilities. UN Joint Logistic Committee (UNJCL), an operations arm of World Food
Programme (WFP) helped with logistics
facilities, including chartered fishing vessels and LCTs, which they needed as
lighters to offload thousands of tonnes of food from ships at anchor.
Voyage charters were offered to NGOs in between ship operations, so they too could carry the materials that NGOs required to islands and points along the coast. LCTs also work the connection from Belawan to Sabang Island north of Aceh, in its attempt to be a hub port.
One LCT operator is Limin Marine, a subsidiary of subsidiary of P.T. Sumber shipyard in Singapore. Eric Limin wants to see which non-government aid organisations (NGOs) might consider the landing craft in conjunction with chartered vessels bringing materials for the thousands of houses to be built in 2006. This would be an option to trucking that is so costly and piecemeal. His biggest LCT is 555 gross registered tons and there is another that WFP previously chartered of 451 GRT.
"Due to no regular liner shipment and rarely any consolidation of cargo between NGOs, the bigger NGOs who have lots of cargo like WFP and Red Cross would time charter vessels," Limin said. "The smaller NGOs could go for voyage charters."
IOM's Overland Logistics
With donor support, the International Organization for Migration's
free overland logistics service (OLS) began operations in the days immediately
after the tsunami and has been maintained as the principal land-bridge into
Aceh and Nias ever since.
IOM is an inter-governmental organization (not an NGO and not the UN) with representation in 136 member and observer countries.
To date IOM has transported roughly 80,000 tonnes of relief
supplies, building materials etc. into Aceh and Nias on behalf of more than 100
international organisation, local NGOs and government departments/ministries.
This aid and materials includes that provided by IOM.
The majority of goods are delivered through Belawan port in Medan, North Sumatra.
Of that figure, 15,000 tonnes was transported to Nias.
In April 2005, IOM cleared a backlog of more than 1,400 unclaimed shipping containers at Belawan port awaiting clearance to warehouses in Medan due to the congestion created by the influx of aid containers.
In support of all these operations, IOM opened a transport and logistics office hub in Medan immediately after the tsunami, and a sub-office at the main airport in Medan to coordinate the daunting logistics behind the emergency operations.
Nias Schools
In the wake of the Nias quake March 2005, the government again turned to IOM for transport and logistics support.
IOM implemented a tracking system in Nias to ensure accountability and transparency with officers in Sibolga port and in Gunung Sitoli airport, and provided transportation to distribution points and warehouses on the island.
IOM operated a 400 ton landing craft between Sibolga, North Sumatra and Gunung Sitoli in Nias from June 2005 - March 2006, sufficient to carry two dozen ten-wheelers. The WFP Shipping Service took over those operations in Early March.
IOM employs 16 Acehnese contractors to manufacture the cement components for housing, clinic and school construction projects. They are based in Aceh Besar, Banda Aceh, Lhokseumawe and Meulaboh.
Construction has occurred in 11 tsunami-affected districts along 800 kms of shoreline - recently extended to Nias Island where IOM is building 75 temporary elementary schools on behalf of UNICEF. This is an extension of the completed Aceh school construction project that saw 141 such facilities built in five districts.
Sufficient building materials to erect 45 schools weighing roughly 900 tonnes have already been pre-positioned at building sites that UNICEF identified.
Caption: All the school construction materials were transported from Banda Aceh to Nias aboard a WFP Shipping Service 400 tonne LCT which IOM leased and operated between Sibolga and Nias
Final
Obviously inter-agency cooperation and the support of IOM's Indonesian government partners was vital to the success of both emergency responses. However, IOM's OLS is shutting down. Effective April 1, IOM will no longer provide this service to Nias. Effective April 30, operations between Medan and Banda Aceh, and Medan and Meulaboh will cease, and the Medan logistics office will close.
It was IOM that instigated the port-tsunami trucking convoys snaking the 1,700 kms (1,060 miles) from Jakarta to Banda Aceh via Medan. Concentrating now on Nias, the island devastated first by the tsunami then a massive earthquake on 28 March 2005, IOM is well into restoring 225 classrooms in 43 temporary schools on Nias. The organisation already built more than 140 similar earthquake-resistant elementary schools in Aceh. To make the passage possible for hundreds of tonnes of building materials, IOM had to rebuild nine bridges which collapsed due to the earthquake.
Caption to photo:
Loading a 60 tonne fishing vessel with cement components at Penayung port in the centre of Banda Aceh, made by a local cement products firm. Destined for Calang down the west coast, the fishing vessel was on sub-lease from Atlas Logistique.
(IOM copyright rules apply.)
Ferry services from Banda Aceh to coastal and off-lying islands were able to resume when the city's Ulee Lheue berth, wharf, and sheds were restored in December 2005, thanks to UN Development Programme (UNDP) and bilateral funding from AIRPDAustralia). Re-establishing the port's access road was began as UNDP organised engineer and local workers for the mass recycling of the city's demolition waste to make the foundation. (
Near to re-opening, Banda Aceh's freight port Malahayati and
Meulaboh's port have funding and engineering help from Netherlands and Singapore respectively.
With Ulee Lheue re-opened, strait-operating ferries have started to connect Aceh's west coast directly with S.E. Asian regional centres - like the Angkutan Sungai Danau and Pelabuhan (ASDP) 700 tonne, three-deck cargo-passenger ferry "KMP Jatra III" now operating weekly to/from Penang. ASDP Operations Manager, Nuraya Fasya Shahril, said Banda Aceh's vast construction task will provide much of the freight.
The Indonesian military has restored many of the inland bridge crossings and washed out sections of coastal road, using Bailey-type bridges shipped in from Holland and elsewhere. USAID and bilateral funding to Indonesia helped equip and start the engineering work.
Funding to restore road, port and other transport infrastructure has brought foreign engineering contractors to Aceh and Nias, who have the support of USAID, AusAID and other national aid agencies who appreciate their past experience in international aid agency projects.
The engineering/aid agency contractors can be useful sources for finding out about opportunities for building and construction materials and equipment.
NGOs' biggest destinations are Banda Aceh and its suburbs in Aceh's northern tip, followed by the second biggest city, Meulaboh, on Aceh's west coast.
But there are many coastal locations in between ranging from a main centre, Calang, to small villages - all hard hit with as much as half the population, most houses and buildings, and transport facilities washed away.
In addition to the NGOs operating in the main two cities, many others are ranged widely along Aceh's west coast and up in the hinterlands.
Some lack logistics knowhow like trip chartering and how to organise the commercial and physical arrangements. The main possibilities for forwarders arrangements are arranging customs and any other official import clearances, the unloading of goods from import containers and cartage to road haulers or suitable coastal operating vessels like LCTs, organising the on-carriage and delivery into NGO's local stockpiles.
There are possibilities for helping NGOs also with:
. Interim storage
. Independent tally verifying receipt of goods
. Salvage and restoring of damaged goods
. Disposal and accounting for unfit goods
Some NGOs have advanced logistics in Aceh which they make available to other NGOs. The French NGO Atlas Logistique sells them road haulage Medan to Banda Aceh, Sigli and Meulaboh using 7, 10, 20 and 30 tonne trucks.
Locally around Banda Aceh, it has a pick-up and delivery fleet and arranges coastal boat loads to Lamno, Calang, Meulaboh six times a week, also to Simeulue and Nias Islands once a week. It has facilities too in Meulaboh, Calang and on Simeulue.
One Asia-Pacific specialist that NGOs turn to is
Sydney-based HK Shipping.
"We organised 250 shipping containers of goods and materials to move to a west coast location for an Australia NGO," said HK's general manager,
Matthew Sorensen. He said tremendously difficult issues had to be resolve starting with Indonesian Customs and various other required clearances, with the on-carriage by road from Medan to Banda Aceh, then loading of the freight onto two LCTs chartered for a series of voyages from Ulee Lheue (Banda Aceh) to locations down the west coast.
Replenishment of aid emergency supplies is an ongoing task, which IFRC finds especially important in Asia Pacific. Its emergency response hub in Kuala Lumpur has to be ready for thirty countries, including China, Bangladesh and Indonesia. The region is viewed as one of the most disaster prone on earth, with around 60pc of all natural disasters occurring there.
At any one time, the operation will hold emergency aid stocks for up to 12,000 people and the facility will be able to support a further 100,000 people by providing specialised items such as warehouse tents and 4x4 vehicles that form an essential part of the Red Cross emergency relief supply chain during a disaster, said British Red Cross head of logistics Mike Goodhand.
Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca just committed 380,000 pounds to the hub to replenish 160 tonnes of emergency relief items. The company's Asia Pacific vice president Andrew Howden said AstraZeneca has a long tradition of support for the Red Cross Red Crescent movement and has a focus on programmes to treat TB in Central Asia. A regular supporter in times of emergency, it was the company's first time as a supplier for stocking the emergency hub.
Red Cross/Red Crescent members were keen participants in a project with Fritz Institute to develop supply chain software. Freight forwarding readers may recall San Francisco's-based Fritz Companies, a Fortune 1000 global logistics corporation which UPS bought in 2001. Acting on keen interest to give humanitarian organizations logistics expertise that as freight forwarders and export shipping departments enjoy, Lynn Fritz founded Fritz Institute.
One of their early projects was to develop Humanitarian Logistics Software (HLS), software which helped International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reduce the time required to coordinate relief for several countries, as well as GIK (gifts-in-kind) for its Indian Ocean tsunami relief. By making its entire relief supply chain transparent, HLS cut typical delivery times for getting goods to those whose lives were affected by the tsunami.
With her shipping experience (previously with American President Lines) and backed by Lynn Fritz's commitment to humanitarian supply solutions, Fritz Institute's chief logistics officer, Mitsuko (Mich) Mizushima, and the Fritz Institute team networks extensively with humanitarian organizations.
Asked how NGO supply managers and logisticians could benefit from aid delivery software, Mich said:
Most of the organizations still don't even use bar codes. Under development now, our new supply chain software, HELIOS provides visibility and the ability to manage the complex supply chain in an emergency.
"Smaller NGOs said they didn't really have a need for supply chain software. But when the Asian tsunami hit they needed it immediately!"
In an echo of commercial sector experience 20 years ago, advance surveying showed the need to provide access to 21st century practices and technologies to help NGO logisticians to their jobs. As disasters become more frequent and complex, there is a need to concentrate on understanding and addressing the challenges faced by humanitarian logisticians in the timely delivery of the right supplies to people in need.
Asked about e-replenishment software by which NGO logisticians could draw-down needed supplies for their strategically placed aid stockpiles, Mich said "it's a great idea that we would be interested in looking at, but not in the immediate future. The immediate focus is on managing the supply chain under the most dynamic of conditions."
Most international humanitarian organizations mange their own supply chains. Fritz Institute is collaborating with many NGOs to address preparedness issues, where they feel they can make a difference, rather than working at the front lines during an emergency. Nevertheless, there is certain expertise that NGOs do not have, which they look to companies, such as freight forwarders to provide.
Ends