Building strong maritime logistics in difficult times

Frequent supply chain disruptions have exposed the vulnerability of transport and logistics operations to unequal capacity and resources between countries.

Recurring weather events, the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and other crises illustrate the scale of the problem and its implications for global supply chains and sustainable development.

These challenges highlight the importance of building resilience, especially in the most vulnerable economies.

Shamika N Sirimane, Director of UNCTAD’s Technology and Logistics Division, said: “As resilience and risk management become part of the new normal, new forms of transport, logistics, trade and supply chains are emerging.

To help countries adapt to the new normal, UNCTAD has launched a new website promoting robust maritime logistics amid disruptions. The website includes a handbook for ports titled “Managing Disasters and Building Resilience” and many other resources.

“The web package provides our users with risk identification, assessment, management tools and approaches, case studies, good practices and a step-by-step resilience building process to support ports and other relevant maritime supply chain actors,” she added.

UNCTAD will update the website as additional resources and tools become available.

Responding to problems

Sustainability and resilience are important for member states, as highlighted at UNCTAD’s Ninth Multiannual Expert Meeting on Transport, Trade Logistics and Trade Facilitation held in July 2022.

Participants expressed concern over the impact of disruptive events on consumer prices, increasing food and energy bills, and reducing the reliability of transportation services.

UNCTAD’s work on building resilience in trade logistics aims to mitigate and reduce the negative impacts of disruptive events and the efficient delivery of cross-border trade.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the entire world and ports by surprise. It has awakened us to the reality that building resilience against such shocks must be a daily practice,” said Michael Luguje, Head of Ghana Ports and Harbours.

“We appreciate UNCTAD and its partners and donors for the published impact assessment reports, the organization of regional webinars, the dissemination of lessons learned, the publication of the ports handbook, the resilience website and the training package being developed,” he said.

As developing countries are major players in maritime transport and trade, maintaining the integrity of maritime supply chains, especially ports, is essential for sustainable development.

Ensuring the integrity and efficient operation of maritime transport is critical to all economies, especially small island developing states and underdeveloped countries.

These vulnerable economies are highly dependent on maritime transport networks for their livelihoods and access to the global marketplace.

Moreover, they are already burdened with relatively high transportation costs and low shipping connectivity, which makes their business uncompetitive, volatile, unpredictable, and expensive.

The UNCTAD Handbook provides a step-by-step approach, tools and methods for enhancing port resilience. It emphasizes the importance of preparedness and the role of effective risk management.

The directive provides guidance to ports as a key node in the maritime supply chain, handling over 80% of maritime trade by volume.

It expands to include collaboration with other actors involved in post-world relations, as they are critical to designing responses to disruption and building resilience.

The next steps: adjusting the action

UNCTAD will launch a new course on ports and maritime supply chain resilience structured around six modules.

These will help raise awareness of maritime supply chain resilience and build the capacity of ports and other stakeholders to better manage risks and deal with disruptions.

This work is done in the whole framework A broad United Nations initiative In the year Launched in 2020, a project specifically titled “Transport and Trade Connections in the Age of Pandemics”.