On February 21, I went to Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. In this Palestinian city, on the common border with Egypt, nearly one million five hundred thousand people have fled the bombing and find themselves trapped. If the possibility of a truce is mentioned here and there, the bombs, dropped daily in the area, added to the lack of access to humanitarian aid, plunge civilians into a situation of absolute destitution.
An ongoing humanitarian tragedy
The population of Rafah is now six-fold. Tents are set up on every street corner. In the city, collective shelters overflow. There is not a square meter, a sidewalk, a balcony or a schoolyard that is not also occupied by displaced families, refugees wherever the place is available. In every look, the weight of the suffering endured is easily discernible. Everyone is exhausted, desperate, traumatized. They need everything: food, water, shelter, while humanitarian aid trucks are blocked at the border so close. The tension is palpable in this city where there is an atmosphere of chaos.
There is no safe place, and humanitarian aid is dribbling down. Air drops or the shipping corridor is not enough. The blockages in the delivery of humanitarian aid right across the border are unacceptable and must be lifted.
The pattern of damage caused by the violence of explosive weapons
Although I have been involved in emergency action for a long time, I am shaken by what I have seen. Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world and bombs have been raining continuously for 5 months. When explosive weapons are used in populated areas, 90% of the victims are civilians: the population is killed, mutilated, traumatized. Critical infrastructure, such as hospitals or schools, is being destroyed, which is already having a lasting impact, as these services are now unavailable and will remain unavailable for a long time. Even after the end of the fighting, shelling and shelling will leave areas heavily contaminated with explosive remnants, posing a serious long-term threat. Long and complex clearance operations will be necessary to allow any reconstruction. The consequences of the use of explosive devices are still visible in many countries around the world. For example, almost 30 years after the end of the conflict in Bosnia, the country is still contaminated by mines and explosive remnants of war. 50 years after the end of the Vietnam War, mine clearance operations are still underway in Cambodia and Laos.
What we are seeing in Gaza corresponds to the usual pattern of devastation caused by urban bombing, a pattern that Handicap International (HI) has observed and documented for years: massive population displacements, destruction of critical civilian infrastructure and housing, neutralization of agricultural land and livelihoods, and of course the dead and injured.
Here, the consequences are unparalleled. The humanitarian impact of the last five months is unprecedented, as the bombardments, very intense, rain without stopping on a strip of 40 km long, populated by nearly 2 million inhabitants.
International Humanitarian Law as the only compass
If this pattern of damage is sadly predictable, a new extreme has been reached in Gaza. Five months after the October 7 attack by Hamas, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and 240 people taken hostage, the death toll in the Gaza Strip is 30,000 and nearly 70,000 wounded. Half of the buildings in Gaza’s five provinces are destroyed or damaged, after 45,000 bombs were dropped until mid-January. The entire territory is made extremely dangerous by constant bombing and attacks and contamination by explosive remnants of war. Cities are in ruins and 1.7 million people are displaced.
HI has long been committed to protecting civilians from explosive weapons, whether they be mines, cluster munitions or urban bombings. The association calls for a stop to the bombing in Gaza, the indiscriminate effect of explosive weapons being systematic on civilians when they are used in populated areas. These devastating effects were recognized by 84 states that adopted, in November 2022, a Political Declaration against bombing in populated areas. This declaration is part of International Humanitarian Law. It is consistent with HI’s support for the call for a ceasefire and the release of all the hostages and people held illegally. Only a ceasefire can meet the immensity and urgency of the needs with quick and unhindered access across the entire Gaza Strip.
Jean-Pierre Delomier
Deputy Director of Operations for Handicap International
In a previous edition of Humanitarian Challenges, we mentioned the birth of hulo (HUmanitarian LOgistics), this humanitarian cooperative created in June 2021 in the wake of the RLH (Humanitarian Logistics Network), which today brings together 13 humanitarian organizations and is established in 6 countries in 2023. Born out of awareness of “urgent need to do more with less”[1]» as expressed by hulo, it remained to measure the performance of this initiative, based on the hulo impact report dated January 2024, and based mainly on 2023 data. This is what we want to do now, especially through an exchange with Jean Baptiste Lamarche, CEO of hulo, who played a major role, from the origin of the RLH to this cooperative.
Before starting this conversation, it is useful to clarify that the “flagship” of hulo’s activities and engagement, although we will cover the others, is the “Joint Procurement Initiative” (JPI), which bring together through hulo the needs of aid organizations in the purchase of food and products, in order to achieve economies of scale (15.03% in 2023 according to the impact report), product quality improvements benefiting all, and greater administrative fluidity in purchasing procedures. Within hulo, there are currently 7 JPI operational, and soon 8 more to come.
Discussion with Jean-Baptiste Lamarche, CEO of HULO:
– PB: hulo participated in the European Humanitarian Forum (EHF) on 18 and 19 March, where you took part in the session “Improving the efficiency of humanitarian aid delivery”[2] ». On this occasion, hulo received the InnovAid Innovation Award. Is it for you a form of recognition, an encouragement?
– JBL: For us, this 2023 Humanitarian Innovation Award is indeed a sign of strong recognition, because of the quality of the selection (among 58 candidates), but also of confidence and encouragement, because now that the pilot phases are validated, we are entering the expansion phase of our solution, which still represents many new challenges.
– PB: It seems to me that the essential information of the 2024 impact report of hulo is that this cooperative has allowed its members to realize savings in terms of purchase of 15.03% on average, with an improvement, often, in the quality of the products, streamlining and simplifying purchasing procedures and reducing fraud. Do you think there is still room for improvement in this already remarkable result?
– JBL: Yes, we now need to institutionalize these new ways of working in the internal workings of organizations. This represents a major challenge in driving change in highly structured practices (notably through donor rules), and for which considerable efforts remain to be made by all stakeholders (participating NGOs, donors, hulo, etc.).
– PB: In the impact report, we read that you analysed 208,000 purchasing lines for a value of about 300 million euros, which seems like a huge task. What role do you see in streamlining these analyses for the LINK software, which we discussed in our first article on hulo, and for artificial intelligence (AI)?
– JBL: The use of the LINK software allows, thanks to its catalogue of more than 4,000 articles, to structure the data from the start of a command line. The LINK software therefore provides quality data, which makes it possible to speed up and streamline data analyses to identify possible efficiency gains, and to define operational priorities. With a growing number of participating organizations, the volume of data is also growing and so we are building Machin Learning tools[3] and Artificial Intelligence, to automate data processing tasks.
– PB: Beyond that, you say in the impact report that hulo wants to be “data driven”, that is, driven by data analysis, within the framework of the operational choices of its members. Can you tell us more about this, and in particular about the role of the BAR (Business Analytics & Research) department within hulo?
– JBL: BAR’s role is to collect, structure, harmonise and analyse logistics data from member organisations. It provides methodological support and decision support for the pooling of resources between organizations.
– PB: In the impact report, you address the notion of «New way of working» for member or partner humanitarian organizations, and also sometimes a form of misunderstanding of the principle of mutualization, as well as forms of «passive resistance» and “self-training” internally in some humanitarian organizations. Can you elaborate on this and explain how the “JPI Toolkit” (Joint Procurement Initiative toolkit) you are implementing can address these challenges?
– JBL: Working across organizations can add a layer of complexity to processes and often overwhelmed teams. It is therefore not surprising that some actors are not the most proactive on collaboration. The gains being nevertheless significant, the NGOs decided to overcome this barrier by creating hulo, to have a dedicated team that structures, equips and professionalizes these modes of collaboration. The JPI toolkit contains the tools for making shared purchases that must be used by all participating organizations. Once this toolkit is integrated into the internal toolbox of each organization, teams will be trained and will only have to apply this new standard. This action will be fundamental to trigger the transition on a large scale.
– PB: You also mention in the impact report the «risk of sharing washing»; can you explain this notion?
– JBL: This risk illustrates the potential abuse of language that some can do using buzzwords such as pooling, joint initiatives, sharing resources, etc. We observed that some companies used these terms to sell their services. At hulo, we specialize in facilitating collaborative activities between organizations. We consider that this is a real know-how, which cannot be improvised, and we therefore alert on this risk of misuse of the very definition of mutualization in our humanitarian ecosystem.
Burkina Faso: a win-win mutual purchase, thanks to hulo.
In Burkina Faso, a shared purchase of RRM (Rapid Response Mechanism) emergency kits was facilitated by hulo for 9 organizations with a total estimated market of €2,200,000. At the end of 2023, 33 orders were placed, for a total amount of € 452,611 generating € 93,200 in savings, or 17.09% of the initial amount. As a rapid humanitarian response mechanism to cover urgent needs as quickly, efficiently and appropriately, in a country affected by violence, mass displacement and food insecurity, we see here how mutualization makes it possible to do quickly, better, cheaper, for a maximum of beneficiaries, when the situation so requires.
– PB: Can you explain the role played by the Hulo Country Coordinators?
– JBL: The role of the Hulo Country Coordinators present in each country of intervention is to structure and facilitate pooling activities. Through regular exchanges with each participating organization and with the support of the BAR hulo team, they collectively identify opportunities for pooling (purchasing, transport, human resources, environment, etc.). The final selection of opportunities is made during meetings organized with the Country Management of the participating organizations, to ensure a good mobilization of the necessary resources. Then, they support the operational implementation of the pooling projects selected with the participating logistics teams.
– PB: Can you tell us about the initiatives on reducing the environmental impact of humanitarian organisations and promoting localisation, in which hulo is involved?
– JBL: At this stage, hulo is still in a pilot phase, with a view to defining its environmental strategy. We provide expertise on shared purchases, to ensure that environmental criteria are taken into account in the selection of suppliers. We also carry out actions on the identification of recycling and waste recovery sectors, then we test shared waste collection methods. We also participate in many working groups between actors to allow us to identify the topics on which we will be able to create value, which also includes localization issues. Our goal is to have an environmental strategy to present at the next general meeting scheduled for the end of May.
– PB: Finally, what message do you want to convey to humanitarian organisations?
– JBL: The creation of value from pooling is now demonstrated, with up to 15% savings and an increase in the quality of the humanitarian response, the implementation of new ways of working between organizations is becoming essential. The challenge now is to integrate and institutionalize these practices so that the benefits can really increase the impact of aid and cushion the lack of funding.
– PB: Thank you very much, Jean-Baptiste, and we wish hulo the greatest possible success for your development and the accomplishment of your projects. And beyond that, let’s hope for an increasingly mutualized and efficient “humanitarian world”…*
[2] “Improving the efficiency of delivering humanitarian assistance”.
[3] Machine Learning is an artificial intelligence technology that allows machines to learn without first being specifically programmed for this purpose.
Pierre Brunet
Writer and Humanitarian
Pierre Brunet is a novelist and member of the Board of Directors of the NGO SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL. He became involved in humanitarian work in Rwanda in 1994, then in 1995 in Bosnia, and has since returned to the field (Afghanistan in 2003, Calais jungle in 2016, migrant camps in Greece and Macedonia in 2016, Iraq and North-East Syria in 2019, Ukraine in 2023). Pierre Brunet’s novels are published by Calmann-Lévy: «Barnum» in 2006, «JAB» in 2008, «Fenicia» in 2014 and «The triangle of uncertainty» in 2017. Former journalist, Pierre Brunet regularly publishes articles of analysis, opinion, or chronicles.
Jean-Baptiste Lamarche
Jean-Baptiste Lamarche is Managing Director and Co-founder of Hulo, the first humanitarian cooperative that connects actors and innovates in the pooling and optimization of resources in supply chains. He holds an Executive MBA International from HEC Paris and has devoted most of his career to humanitarian logistics. Before founding hulo, Jean-Baptiste held management positions in several international NGOs, including as Director of Logistics and Information Systems for Action Against Hunger. Leader and committed collaborator, Jean-Baptiste is passionate about innovation as a lever to increase the impact of humanitarian aid.
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