Unique three-way partnership in emergency relief aims to help Africa help itself 

Agility joined hands with World Vision and Advance Aid to form a three-way partnership that will enable African-produced emergency relief goods to be provided to assist in African emergencies -- a first.

The partnership will help establish new procurement practices for a region that has traditionally sourced all of its relief supplies from the Far East, Europe and North America. The 5,000 emergency kits that Advance Aid is supplying to World Vision today are 100 percent locally-purchased and more than 80 percent African-manufactured. The partners believe that this is the first time that a largely African kit has been supplied for use in African emergencies.

Advance Aid has worked with a number of Kenyan manufacturers to source the goods for the emergency kits. Each kit provides the basics that help a family of five to survive following a natural or man-made disaster: plastic sheeting, blankets, a mosquito net, a kitchen set, two buckets and a hygiene kit.

Logistics and warehousing services are being provided for the initiative by Agility through its warehouses in Nairobi and Mombasa. Agility will also be working with World Vision Kenya to distribute the emergency kits – in forty-foot containers provided by Advance Aid – to World Vision offices across the country where they will be stored to be ready for use in the event of emergencies.

“Agility is pleased to partner with Advance Aid and World Vision in this new model of relief aid procurement and distribution,” says Dev Bij, Agility’s CEO of East Africa. “The partner-ship fits in well with Agility's vision of corporate social responsibility and our commitment to contribute to positive change in the East African countries that we work in. This project depends on an effective supply chain solution, which is what we do every day in our business. We are delighted to contribute our skills, knowledge, resources and local expertise. We were able to contribute in a way that brings additional value to the local capacity and content that went into this project."