Atlas Logistique
We believe in the equitable delivery of aid to all vulnerable populations, and we work towards this every day by providing common logistics solutions for other humanitarian actors.
Ensuring aid reaches the most vulnerable
Atlas Logistique is one of HI's operational units,specialized in the delivery of aid, in support of organisations and the humanitarian system.
Challenging logistics and poor infrastructure can limit access to aid for already vulnerable and isolated communities. These logistical constraints exacerbate security management challenges and diminish the effectiveness of humanitarian responses, or may even make them impossible.
Atlas Logistique acts according to an innovative and proactive approach to humanitarian logistics, which we see as a vector of humanitarian impact and not as a support function for operations. Based on contextual analyses, this “programmatic” logistics aims to make the humanitarian aid system more efficient, more inclusive of isolated populations and more respectful of the environment. Our approach also contributes to the emergence of market actors as levers of resilience and local development.
Since 1991, we have been “helping those who help others”, intervening in contexts where physical and security access challenges and significant volumes of aid require the implementation of adapted logistics solutions. Our operations are based on four integrated pillars of intervention: common transportation and storage platforms, civil engineering for humanitarian access, logistics analysis and capacity building for humanitarian and private actors.
"In the difficult context in Central African Republic, where organising any activity rapidly is extremely complicated, the work of actors such as Atlas Logistique, specialised in pooled transport and logistics solutions, is vital as it allows NGOs to focus on their core activities and to provide vulnerable people with the assistance they require as quickly as possible".
Grégoire Rivière, Rapid Response Manager, ACTED (Bambari - Central African Republic)
Common logistics solutions for humanitarian actors
Atlas Logistique’s HQ team has about fifteen technical experts and expert flying staff. We have a pool of about 75 trained experts currently deployed or ready to deploy within 48 hours of an emergency to assess logistics needs and launch projects. We have the technical and operational capacity to open two additional projects per year.
Atlas Logistique enhances the mobility of humanitarian actors and affected populations. We open communications channels and ensure aid reaches all communities, including the hardest to reach, quickly and safely.
Our common logistics approach supports the efficient use of aid resources. We work with local actors to carry out our logistics solutions and provide them with capacity-building services during and prior to the response to better address emergency needs and help strengthen their economic activity. Our localization approach promotes local economic growth and acceptance, and enhances the resilience of the logistics environment.
As a humanitarian actor, we adhere to the humanitarian principles and promote solidarity and coordination among local and international humanitarian actors.
Our activities
We can provide any of our services independently or as part of a package, according to the context and needs, and we intervene in both acute and stabilized crisis contexts, as well as in reconstruction and development phases.
Our operations are based on four interacting intervention pillars:
Common transportation and storage platforms
We mobilize local economic actors to provide transportation (road, air, sea and/or river) and storage solutions adapted to the logistical, operational and security challenges of the context. Our activities optimize aid resources in emergencies and complex emergencies, increase access to isolated communities, guarantee the quality and traceability of transport, limit the effects of inflation and promote coordination between response actors, the private sector and public authorities.
We establish logistics systems that connect different transportation and storage modalities and different skills and capacities (humanitarian watch, pre-positioning, emergency team deployments, security diagnostics, logistical vulnerability, accessibility etc.). These systems aim to proactively manage humanitarian aid supply chains, anticipating the delivery needs of first responders and facilitating their humanitarian needs assessments.
Civil engineering for humanitarian access
From rubble clearance to the rehabilitation of roads, bridges, and airways, we carry out civil engineering activities to address physical access concerns that may affect aid delivery. In conjunction with the monitoring of logistical vulnerabilities, our teams restore and consolidate transportation routes to the most isolated and vulnerable communities. In this way, we facilitate the access of humanitarian inputs and local actors to these communities, while opening affected areas and allowing the population to access services and aid. Our action thus benefits the entire humanitarian system, as well as local communities and actors.
Logistics analysis
Logistics vulnerability analysis is a pillar of our programmatic logistics approach.
We help humanitarian actors understand the most vulnerable populations in relation to their logistical environment. We thus contribute to the prioritization and planning of humanitarian resources in order to make aid strategies and operations more relevant, efficient and inclusive of the most difficult-to-access populations.
Capacity building
Our capacity building activities for market actors contribute to the professionalization and economic development of the private transportation sector. It also increases the capacity of the private sector to respond autonomously to the needs of humanitarian actors and their target communities, and to better manage the security risks of the logistics environment. Furthermore, our capacity-building activities for humanitarian partners contribute to improving the efficiency of aid delivery to the most vulnerable populations.
At Atlas Logistique, we believe logistics should be seen not just as a support service for operations, but also as a key component of humanitarian response strategies.
Watch our short video to learn more!
Each year, Atlas Logistique (HI-AL) publishes an operations review to its external partners. We are pleased to share with you this newsletter giving an overview of the highlights of HI-AL operations.
See also below, some of the highlighted projects.
ZOOM
DRC: Bridging the gap between population and healthcare
Bordering South Sudan and Uganda, the Ituri province of DRC is a tropical zone where access to healthcare remains challenging both for refugees fleeing the fighting in Sudan and the local population. Atlas Logistique used its expertise to create road access to this high-risk area to connect health centres and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.
ZOOM
MERLUH PROJECT: Cabotage, an in-novative solution in Haiti
The MERLUH (Mer Logistique et Urgence Haiti) project provides a free service and regular mari-time transport by cabotage along the Haitian coasts, for the benefit of all humanitarian organi-sations.
ZOOM
Hurricane Matthew: logistics at the service of a humanitarian response involving NGOs and local populations
Through its rubble clearance, transport and shared storage activities, Atlas Logistique centralizes and delivers humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable and acts as a link between the numerous actors
ZOOM
Idai Emergency: Atlas Logistique’s Analysis and Response
When Tropical Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique in March 2019, Atlas Logistique deployed its flying team to launch access analysis and restoration activities in the affected areas.
Focus on SIGNAL project
Atlas Logistique’s innovative approach to humanitarian logistics
Signal is a project by Atlas Logistique that aims to identify the degree of vulnerability and the disaster recovery capacity of communities in fragile contexts. It also helps to ensure that humanitarian aid strategies take into account populations located in areas with the highest logistical constraints, and thus strengthen their recovery capacity and resilience.
Analysis of logistics vulnerabilities
When humanitarian actors develop their aid strategies in acute or chronic crises, one of their key challenges is identifying which areas to prioritize. To respond to this challenge, Atlas Logistique offers a comparative and holistic approach to vulnerability via the concept of “logistics vulnerability”. This concept mobilizes logistics and access data as a reading grid to understand a population’s vulnerability and recovery capacity.
The objectives of the project
The Signal project aims to produce information, analyses and tools for preparedness and response to chronic and acute crises. It allows actors to:
- improve the targeting and prioritisation of the least resilient populations;
- understand and act on the most degraded logistics environments in order to improve the efficiency of humanitarian responses and the resilience of populations;
- limit the negative impacts of humanitarian interventions on people’s recovery capacities.
The status of the project
Deployed in 2021-2022 in seven countries (Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Haiti, Madagascar, Niger), the project is currently in the pilot phase. It has been tested in different humanitarian contexts, including countries exposed to natural hazards and countries affected by complex and protracted conflicts.
SIGNAL is supported by BHA/USAID, the H2H network, The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs’ Crisis and Support Centre and the Ipsen Foundation.
2022 Atlas Logistique's brochure
Logistics solutions for impactful humanitarian aid
The Signal project
Signal is a project by Atlas Logistique that aims to identify the degree of vulnerability and the disaster recovery capacity of communities in fragile contexts.
Common logistics services: The key to efficient humanitarian aid
HI - Atlas Logistique (HI-AL) has carried out a study with the WHU business school which shows that transport pooling can save around 22% in direct costs, and up to 28% in routing management time.
According to a satisfaction survey conducted by the Logistics Cluster following our humanitarian response in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2017
72 HEURES
notre temps de réponse
opérationnelle
92%
of beneficiaries were satisfied with the service coordination
100%
of beneficiaries were satisfied with the services received
Every year, on average, Atlas Logistique coordinates with nearly 60 partners. These include:
ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development)
Solidarités International
OXFAM
WFP (World Food Programme)
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
International Emergency Firefighters (IEF)
L'UNICEF
International Medical Corps
Médecins du monde
CARITAS
COOPI
Médecins sans frontières (MSF)
NRC
L'UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund)
LA FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
Worldvision
Medair
Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA)
Foreign Affairs’ Crisis and Support Centre (CDCS)
Department for International Development (DFID)
The Luxembourg Government, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA)
European Civil Protection and Hamnitarian aid Operations (ECHO)
For more information on our expertise Atlas Logistique
Johanne MAUGER
Business Development Manager
Photos : © B. Blondel / HI - © Philippa Poussereau/HI - © A. Surprenant/Collectif Item/HI - © HI - © R. Crews/HI - © B. Almeras/HI - © B. Blondel/HI
