Unsolicited Bilateral Donations (UBDs) Background
Often during large-scale emergencies, in-kind humanitarian commodities are provided by governments, NGOs, civil society, solidarity groups, or private individuals. These relief goods are intended to meet some of the needs of the affected population.
They are usually delivered to a port of entry in the country facing the emergency. These goods may at times not be programmed as part of the emergency response and if not properly planned, may result in adversely affecting the response due to the below characteristics.
Experience of recent emergencies has shown that an international commitment to assist those affected by sudden-onset disasters, whilst vital for rehabilitation of affected nations, has also resulted in donations of goods accumulating at ports and airports, instead of being delivered to beneficiaries.
In order for humanitarian aid to be of the most benefit to affected populations, donations should be well-planned with national authorities and the humanitarian community coordinating the relief effort and fully compliant with national requirements for the importation of goods. Therefore initially, for UBDs, it is important to remove possible areas of contention around:
Ownership (i.e. who is the consignee?)
Clearance processes
Transportation (inbound and outbound)
Disposal where necessary
Associated costs related to relief goods
Distribution
Donor responsibility (i.e. reporting, monitoring and accountability)
Cargo that lacks documentation and adequate planning for onward delivery may have an adverse effect on the relief effort by taking up scarce resources such as aircraft landing slots or storage space, and can place an additional logistics burden on organizations working on the ground.