GENEVA, June 2 - The United Nations children’s agency cautioned on Tuesday that a spike in global transport costs and disruptions to supply chains connected to the Middle East crisis are putting the delivery of lifesaving supplies for children at risk.
Nearly 100 days after the outbreak of the Iran war, the agency said rising insecurity around crucial Gulf shipping lanes has pushed up fuel prices and insurance premiums. That pressure, combined with congestion at alternative ports, has compounded delays and complicated humanitarian logistics.
UNICEF officials reported a growing dependence on air freight to move supplies. In the first quarter alone, the agency nearly exhausted the yearly contributions it normally receives from logistics partners that donate charter flights, as it sought to fly supplies into Lebanon and Gaza to offset shipping delays of up to four to six weeks. "That is unprecedented," Jean-Cedric Meeus, UNICEF's Chief of Global Transport and Logistics, told reporters.
The agency is also turning to air transport in its response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, citing persistent congestion at the ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam.
UNICEF estimates that some delivery timelines have extended to as much as six months. Meeus said that rerouting shipments around the Cape of Good Hope - a longer alternative to transiting Gulf routes - is adding two to four weeks to delivery schedules.
These shifts are having measurable budgetary consequences. In Mali, UNICEF reported a 36% increase in its transport budget in the first quarter of this year, forcing choices between maintaining supplies of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food cartons and funding other programs such as water and sanitation. The cost of trucking therapeutic food cartons from manufacturers in Kenya to destinations including Somalia, South Sudan, and the DRC has risen by 30%.
In one example of the rising cost burden on health campaigns, the agency said it paid an additional $200,000 to reroute syringes for a polio vaccination drive in Nigeria, reflecting a 56% increase in transport costs for that shipment.
Bottom line: Heightened risk along Gulf shipping routes, higher fuel and insurance costs, and port congestion are driving UNICEF to more expensive transport modes and creating substantial delivery delays that are straining program budgets and forcing trade-offs among lifesaving interventions.