The Temporary Shelter Market: What Humanitarian Buyers Should Know

Q: What is the minimum covered space per person in a temporary shelter?

UNHCR's shelter standards give a minimum of 3.5 m2 of covered living space per person in tropical or warm climates, and 4.5 to 5.5 m2 where cold weather prevails for three to five months.

Q: How much storage does a displacement site need?

UNHCR's camp planning standards set 15 to 20 m2 of relief storage per 100 persons, so a site of 20,000 people needs 3,000 to 4,000 m2.

Tony Miller

7 days ago

6 min read

The temporary shelter market is three separate markets: standard-specification soft shelter bought in bulk, engineered structures for storage and services, and local materials. In South Sudan in 2026, 6.7 million people need shelter and non-food item support, and the cluster plans to reach 13 per cent of them.

What is the temporary shelter market, and who buys in it?

It is the supply side of every decision a shelter or CCCM team makes: what to put over a displaced family, what to store relief stock in, and what to build clinics, distribution points and offices from. Buyers are UN agencies, international and national NGOs, and governments. Sellers range from manufacturers that publish a specification and a price to in-country distributors that hold stock and deliver.

A buyer reading the market as one category will overspend. The three lanes behave differently, and a good purchase starts by deciding which lane the need sits in. If you want the operational view of how temporary shelter is used once it arrives, our post on the role of temporary shelters in emergency response covers it. This piece is about the buying decision.

How big is the demand, and how much of it will be met?

Demand is far larger than the response. OCHA's South Sudan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026 puts 6.7 million people in need of shelter and NFI assistance, of whom 28 per cent face critical shelter challenges. The cluster will assist 882,000 people, which is 13 per cent of those in need, against requirements of US$51 million and prioritised requirements of US$30 million.

Two consequences follow for a buyer:

Every order is a rationing decision. With 13 per cent coverage, a unit that lasts longer or arrives sooner is worth more than a cheaper one that does not.
Delivery capacity is a market constraint. The South Sudan Shelter and NFI Cluster had 23 active partners in 2025, two UN agencies, seven international NGOs and 14 national NGOs. A small partner base buying through a few channels means stock availability in country matters more than catalogue breadth.

The plan itself names prepositioning of emergency supplies as part of its rapid-response strategy. That is the commercial signal: buyers are being asked to hold stock before the need appears, not to order after it.

What do buyers actually purchase?

Three lanes, each with its own standard of proof.

Lane one: soft shelter built to a joint specification. This is tarpaulins, plastic sheeting and family tents. The reference point is the IFRC and ICRC Standard Products Catalogue, which publishes jointly agreed specifications. Its tarpaulin and plastic sheeting specification, last updated 16 July 2024, states an expected life span of four years minimum in the strongest tropical conditions and lists a budget price of CHF 10.40 for a 4 x 6 m piece. That is a catalogue budget price, not a delivered one, and it shows how thin the margin is on the product itself: the cost that decides the purchase is everything around it.

The Geodesic Family Tent, developed by ICRC, IFRC and UNHCR, covers 18 m² for a family of five, ships at 48 kg, and carries a five-year shelf life under normal warehousing conditions. Its unified technical specification requires it to withstand a 100 km/h wind without damage, which it notes is achieved through correct anchoring. The catalogue lists the earlier 2008 ridge tent as discontinued and replaced by this type, so any held stock of the older model is superseded.

Shelf life is not service life. A five-year shelf life says how long the tent can sit in a warehouse. It does not say how long a family can live in it, and a replacement budget that confuses the two will fail in year two.

Lane two: engineered structures. Storage halls, rub halls, frame tents, modular and semi-permanent buildings, and mobile storage units. These are bought against a floor area, a load rating and an erection plan, not against a standard family unit. This is the lane SLS operates in, as an authorised distributor of Hallgruppen structures through our warehouses and structures range.

Lane three: local materials. UNHCR's emergency shelter standards, last updated 21 January 2026, state a preference for locally available, sustainably sourced materials, with imports only where adequate quantities cannot quickly be obtained locally. The same entry ranks individual family shelter above communal accommodation. A buyer who ignores this lane pays import costs for what a local market could have supplied.

Where do structures fit in a shelter programme?

Mostly behind the families, not over them. A displacement site needs somewhere to keep the shelter kits, food and NFIs it distributes, and UNHCR's camp planning standards.pdf) set relief storage at 15 to 20 m² per 100 persons.

That converts a population into a purchase. A site of 20,000 people needs 3,000 to 4,000 m² of relief storage. The Logistics Cluster describes the standard mobile storage unit as 24 x 10 x 5 m, with a 240 m² floor and 840 m³ of capacity. By simple division, that site is 13 to 17 such units. The arithmetic is ours, and it is the number a procurement officer should have before opening a tender.

Structures are also where public money is moving. UN procurement totalled US$22.7 billion in 2025, and the Construction, Engineering and Science sector held second place at US$3.6 billion and was the only sector to record an increase.

What should a buyer check before choosing a supplier?

The specification, the delivery term and the in-country position matter more than the headline price. A short checklist:

Which specification, and which test? Ask for the document reference. A tarpaulin or tent quoted without a named specification cannot be compared with one that has it.
Shelf life or service life? Ask which the supplier is quoting, and under what conditions.
Who erects it, and where? A structure that cannot be erected locally is stranded stock. Ask for erection crews and lead time, not just a delivery date.
What is the road risk? South Sudan has 20,000 km of roads, of which only 400 are paved, and most rural roads are inaccessible in the rainy season. Stock that sits in Juba before the rains is stock you can use.
Is the supplier authorised by the manufacturer? Authorised status is what protects warranty and traceability. Our partnerships page lists the manufacturers we are authorised for, and we are UNGM-registered under vendor number 380716. Registration means eligibility to transact with UN buyers, not endorsement.

Landed cost, not unit price, decides the winner on a landlocked corridor, a point we cover in why humanitarian procurement is going regional.

What does SLS supply in this market, and what does it not?

SLS supplies structures: Hallgruppen modular, semi-permanent and permanent buildings, rub halls, frame tents and mobile storage units, from in-country Juba stock where available and delivered to site. We do not supply family tents, tarpaulins, plastic sheeting or shelter kits, and we say so because a buyer should know which lane a supplier is in before sending an RFQ. Where your need is storage, distribution space or a site facility, that is the lane to bring us.

Frequently asked questions

How many people need shelter assistance in South Sudan in 2026?

The 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan puts 6.7 million people in need of shelter and NFI assistance. The cluster will assist 882,000, which is 13 per cent of those in need.

What is the minimum covered space per person in a temporary shelter?

UNHCR's shelter standards give a minimum of 3.5 m² of covered living space per person in tropical or warm climates, and 4.5 to 5.5 m² where cold weather prevails for three to five months.

How long does an emergency tarpaulin last?

The IFRC and ICRC tarpaulin specification states an expected life span of four years minimum in the strongest tropical conditions. That is a manufacturer-side minimum, not a field average.

How much storage does a displacement site need?

UNHCR's camp planning standards.pdf) set 15 to 20 m² of relief storage per 100 persons, so a site of 20,000 people needs 3,000 to 4,000 m².

Does SLS sell family tents or tarpaulins?

No. SLS is an authorised distributor of Hallgruppen structures, including frame tents, rub halls and mobile storage units, and does not supply family tents, tarpaulins or shelter kits.