Disaster Relief Logistics in East Africa: How the Market Works and Who Funds It

Tony Miller

Oct 4

7 min read

The disaster relief logistics market in East Africa is not a commercial market with a size you can look up. It is a chain of donor grants, UN pooled services and in-country suppliers. The 2026 UN appeal asks for US$33 billion, after only US$12 billion arrived in 2025, the lowest in a decade.

What is the disaster relief logistics market?

It is the set of buyers, funders and suppliers that move relief goods from a purchase order to a household or a clinic. Buyers are UN agencies, international NGOs, national NGOs, governments and the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement. Funders sit above them. Suppliers, transporters, warehouse owners and clearing agents sit below. The goods are water treatment, pumps, storage, shelter, medical supplies and food.

Two things make it unlike ordinary commercial logistics. First, demand arrives as a shock (a flood, an outbreak, a returnee surge) and the funding behind it arrives on a grant calendar, so the person who needs the goods rarely controls when the money lands. Second, almost nobody pays for logistics as a standalone product. Transport, storage and clearance are bought as line items inside a programme budget, which is why a supplier's quotation is judged against a donor's cost rules as much as against a competitor's price.

For the wider discipline, our earlier piece on the role of humanitarian logistics in crisis management sets out the functions. This article takes the buyer's question instead: who is spending, how much is left, and where does the work actually get bought.

Who funds disaster relief logistics in East Africa?

Governments fund most of it, through UN agencies and NGOs, and one donor mattered more than any other. The Council on Foreign Relations reports that the United States provided nearly 40 percent of all global humanitarian funding in 2022 and 2023. In late December 2025 the US told UN agencies it would pledge about US$2 billion for 2026, down from up to US$17 billion in recent years, per Al Jazeera's reporting of the announcement. Other donors have also reduced contributions, and the CFR puts 2025 humanitarian funding back at 2016 levels.

The money then flows through three channels:

UN agencies and their appeals. WFP, UNICEF, UNHCR, IOM and WHO buy directly for their own programmes and pass funds to NGO partners. Their needs are summarised in country response plans and in the UN's global appeal.
Pooled funds. Country-based and global pooled funds let donors give once and have the money allocated against priorities. The UN Central Emergency Response Fund is the global example. Allocation rules differ by fund, so check each fund's own guidance before assuming an NGO can bid.
Direct bilateral grants. Governments and institutional donors fund international NGOs directly, with the procurement rules written into the grant agreement.

The practical consequence for a supplier is that the end buyer is often a country supply officer working inside a grant, not a central procurement department. Eligibility rules, such as whether a vendor is registered, whether goods must be authorised-distributor stock, and whether local sourcing earns preference, come from the donor.

How much money is in the system for 2026?

Less than the need, and less than a year ago. The UN's Global Humanitarian Overview for 2026 appeals for US$33 billion to reach 135 million people across 50 countries, with a prioritised US$23 billion for 87 million people. The same UN News report says 2025 funding was US$12 billion, the lowest in a decade, and that it reached 25 million fewer people than the year before.

East Africa shows what that looks like at the level of a single response. In July 2025 WFP said it could sustain assistance in South Sudan for only 2.5 million people, about 30 percent of those severely food insecure, mostly at half rations, and that it needed US$274 million to hold that line through the end of the year. The same release records 7.7 million people facing severe hunger and 1.2 million refugees arriving from Sudan.

Demand is not falling. Uganda alone hosted 2,041,652 refugees and asylum-seekers as of 31 August 2026, according to UNHCR's data portal, Africa's largest refugee-hosting population. For a logistics buyer, a flat or falling budget against rising caseloads means one thing: every shilling or dollar of freight, storage and clearance is under review.

What does the UN buy, and how much of it stays in Africa?

A meaningful share, and the share from poorer countries is stable. The UN Global Marketplace annual statistical report records US$22.7 billion of UN procurement in 2025, of which US$4.3 billion, an 18.8 percent share, went to suppliers in least developed countries. Africa accounted for US$4.7 billion, the third-largest regional share.

Those figures cover all UN procurement, not only relief logistics, so they are a ceiling on the opportunity and not a measure of it. What they show is that regional and local supply is a normal part of how UN buyers spend. We cover the commercial reasoning in why humanitarian procurement is going regional in East Africa.

Who coordinates the movement of goods?

The Logistics Cluster, led by WFP, coordinates it. The Logistics Cluster describes its purpose as providing coordination, information management and access to common logistics services in emergencies, with WFP as global lead. Its common services include warehousing and cargo transport, offered free to users or on a cost-recovery basis and only for a limited duration. Its coordination meetings are open to any organisation delivering aid according to humanitarian principles.

Around the cluster sit WFP-run services. WFP's logistics cluster page names the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) and the UN Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) as common systems. WFP reports that UNHAS carried over 240,000 passengers and 2,500 metric tonnes of light cargo to 362 destinations in 2025, and that UNHRD delivered 580 consignments to 93 countries and territories in 2025.

The limit is in the word "limited". Common services are designed to fill gaps in access and commercial capacity, not to replace commercial supply. UNHAS carries light cargo. A tank, a pump set or a warehouse structure still has to arrive by road, river or commercial freight.

Where do commercial suppliers actually fit?

In four places, and the first is the largest.

Goods in stock, near the need. An agency that can call off pumps, tanks, chlorine tablets or a storage unit from a stockholder in the country avoids the import clock entirely. In Juba, an authorised distributor with local stock can dispatch in days where an overseas order takes weeks.
Storage capacity. Common storage is time-limited, so agencies and NGOs add their own. Modular and semi-permanent structures are the usual answer when a building is not available. Our Hallgruppen warehouse and storage structures are supplied for exactly this.
Clearance and delivery to the end point. Importing into a landlocked country adds customs, permits and inland haulage that the unit price hides. A supplier who quotes delivered terms (DAP or DDP) takes that risk from the buyer.
Last-mile. The final movement to a county, camp or health facility is where road cut-offs and access constraints bite.

SLS is a supplier and an in-country partner in this chain. We are not a donor, a UN agency or a freight forwarder. We supply the equipment and the Juba stock and delivery, and we work with the freight and clearing partners who move cargo to the border.

Why does the market behave differently in East Africa?

Because the geography and the funding both punish slow supply. Landlocked South Sudan relies on Kenyan and Ugandan corridors, access is constrained for months each year, and the region carries large refugee and displaced populations on thin budgets. Uganda's refugee population and the Sudan spill-over into South Sudan mean demand for water, storage and shelter is steady even when headline funding drops.

That is why we think the sensible buying position for 2026 is to hold essential stock in country and tender against delivered price, not unit price. A programme that waits for a grant instalment to start an overseas order has already lost the weeks that mattered. If you want a partner who can show the supplier side of this chain, see how we work with agencies and NGOs on our partnerships page.

Frequently asked questions

Who funds disaster relief logistics in East Africa?

Mainly governments, through UN agencies, pooled funds and direct grants to NGOs. The US alone supplied nearly 40 percent of global humanitarian funding in 2022 and 2023, and in December 2025 announced a 2026 pledge of about US$2 billion, so the funding base is shifting.

How big is the humanitarian funding need for 2026?

The UN's 2026 Global Humanitarian Overview appeals for US$33 billion to reach 135 million people, with a prioritised US$23 billion for 87 million. In 2025 only US$12 billion was received, the lowest in a decade.

What does the Logistics Cluster do?

It provides coordination, information management and access to common logistics services, with WFP as global lead, per the Logistics Cluster. Common warehousing and cargo transport are offered free or on cost recovery for a limited duration only.

How much does the UN spend on procurement from Africa?

The UN Global Marketplace reports US$4.7 billion of UN procurement from Africa in 2025, within a US$22.7 billion total. That covers all goods and services, not only relief logistics.

Is there a market size for disaster relief logistics in East Africa?

No reliable public figure exists for the region. Logistics is bought inside programme budgets, so the best indicators are appeal totals, funding received and UN procurement data, which we cite above.