Emergency Procurement and Logistics Training Course

Duration 10 days 16 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Procurement Officers, Logistics Officers and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-HR-042

Before you join: Participants should have basic experience in procurement, logistics, programme delivery, finance, warehousing, transport or emergency response.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Emergency operations must obtain the right goods and services quickly while protecting people, funds, impartiality and donor confidence. Procurement teams face incomplete specifications, disrupted markets, transport constraints, shifting security conditions and intense pressure to bypass controls. Poor decisions can delay life-saving assistance, create stock losses, expose agencies to fraud, or leave programmes unable to explain how suppliers were selected and goods were tracked.

This course develops the procurement and logistics capability needed to plan, source, receive, store, transport and distribute emergency supplies. Participants work through rapid needs assessment, requisitioning, supplier sourcing, tendering, contracting, Incoterms 2020, warehouse control, fleet planning, customs clearance, cold-chain management and last-mile distribution. The course also addresses donor rules, segregation of duties, fraud indicators, supplier due diligence, claims management, risk registers and coordination with programme, finance and security teams.

Delivered over ten instructor-led days in a classroom or live online, the course combines short technical briefings with humanitarian cases, team-based planning, timed simulations and structured peer review. Participants progressively build an emergency procurement and logistics package from the first week onward, using realistic scenarios such as relief-item procurement after flooding, medical supply replenishment during displacement, and cross-border movement of shelter materials. They leave with a completed emergency supply plan, procurement strategy, logistics plan, risk controls and monitoring measures that can be adapted to their own operation.

The course suits professionals supporting humanitarian response, disaster management, refugee operations, emergency health programmes and relief supply chains. It is particularly relevant where staff must balance speed, compliance, cost, quality and accountability during rapidly changing operations.

What you will be able to do

  • Develop a time-bound emergency procurement strategy from assessed needs, market data and delivery priorities
  • Apply competitive and emergency purchasing methods while maintaining delegated authority and audit trails
  • Prepare supplier due diligence, evaluation and contracting documents for high-risk emergency purchases
  • Use Incoterms 2020, transport plans and customs documents to manage cross-border movements
  • Design warehouse, inventory and fleet controls for relief commodities and programme assets
  • Analyse supply-chain risks using a risk register, mitigation actions and escalation triggers
  • Monitor supplier performance, stock status, delivery reliability and distribution evidence
  • Produce and present an integrated emergency procurement and logistics response package

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Confidence to justify emergency purchasing decisions under audit scrutiny
  • Practical templates for emergency sourcing, transport and stock control
  • Stronger coordination with programme, finance, security and supplier teams
  • Ability to identify fraud, quality and delivery risks earlier
  • A completed response package for use in future deployments

For your organisation

  • Faster mobilisation of relief supplies without abandoning essential controls
  • Better evidence for donor reporting, audit review and procurement file checks
  • Reduced exposure to supplier fraud, conflicts of interest and non-compliant awards
  • Improved stock visibility, transport coordination and last-mile delivery reliability
  • More consistent emergency procedures across procurement, logistics and programme teams

Course modules

16 modules over 10 days

Participants can explain how procurement and logistics decisions support principled, accountable emergency response.

  • Humanitarian principles translated into procurement decisions under pressure
  • Mandates, donor conditions, and delegated authority mapped before commitment
  • Lifecycle links between programme design, sourcing, warehousing, and distribution
  • Conflict-of-interest declarations and segregation of duties in emergency purchasing
  • Audit trail requirements from requisition through payment and asset disposal
  • Supplier communication rules protecting fairness, confidentiality, and humanitarian neutrality

Participants can convert operational needs into prioritised supply requirements and delivery plans.

  • Needs assessment data converted into item specifications and quantities
  • Population figures, consumption rates, and buffer stock assumptions tested
  • Bill of quantities linked to programme objectives and activity schedules
  • Prioritisation matrix distinguishes life-saving, essential, and deferrable requirements
  • Demand forecasts updated using pipeline status and field consumption reports
  • Supply plan assigns sourcing route, lead time, owner, and budget

Participants can prepare an emergency procurement plan that balances urgency, competition and control.

  • Procurement plans sequence requirements, methods, approval points, and delivery dates
  • Thresholds determine quotation, tender, direct purchase, and framework routes
  • Emergency justification documents record urgency, market constraints, and alternatives
  • Delegated authority matrices checked before supplier engagement and award
  • Procurement lead-time analysis identifies decisions requiring immediate action
  • Budget availability verified against requisition, donor code, and cost category

Participants can assess emergency markets and identify suitable suppliers without compromising fairness.

  • Rapid market assessment examines availability, capacity, price, and delivery conditions
  • Supplier mapping separates local, regional, international, and prequalified sources
  • Request for information gathers capacity evidence before formal solicitation
  • Market distortion risks considered when purchasing high-volume relief commodities
  • Price reasonableness tested through quotations, historical records, and market intelligence
  • Supplier databases updated with contact details, categories, and performance history

Participants can write clear specifications and quality requirements for emergency supplies.

  • Technical specifications define function, materials, dimensions, performance, and tolerances
  • Brand-neutral descriptions prevent unjustified supplier exclusion during competition
  • Sphere technical guidance informs selected shelter, WASH, and household items
  • Samples, certificates, and inspection points built into quality assurance plans
  • Medical commodity requirements include batch records, expiry dates, and storage conditions
  • Non-conformance procedures define rejection, replacement, credit, and escalation actions

Participants can run a documented supplier selection process suited to emergency conditions.

  • Request for quotation packages state specifications, quantities, deadlines, and terms
  • Bid opening records preserve confidentiality and receipt-time evidence
  • Evaluation matrices score price, quality, capacity, delivery, and compliance
  • Arithmetic checks identify errors, omissions, conditional offers, and anomalies
  • Clarification requests distinguish permitted questions from material bid changes
  • Award recommendations document rationale, approvals, and unsuccessful supplier notifications

Participants can select and manage contractual arrangements for urgent recurring requirements.

  • Purchase orders define deliverables, delivery dates, inspection, and payment terms
  • Framework agreements support recurring needs without predetermined purchase quantities
  • Contract clauses address force majeure, liquidated damages, warranties, and termination
  • Supplier performance scorecards track quality, timeliness, documentation, and responsiveness
  • Variation orders control approved changes to price, scope, or quantity
  • Dispute records preserve correspondence, evidence, decisions, and corrective actions

Participants can identify procurement integrity risks and apply proportionate preventive controls.

  • Red flags identify collusion, split purchases, false invoices, and kickbacks
  • Sanctions screening checks suppliers, owners, banks, and transport providers
  • Beneficial ownership information supports conflict-of-interest and fraud review
  • Three-way matching compares purchase orders, receipts, invoices, and approvals
  • Whistleblowing channels and investigation escalation routes explained to procurement staff
  • Control tests target repeated awards, unusual prices, and incomplete documentation

Participants can allocate transport responsibilities and plan international freight movements.

  • Incoterms 2020 allocate cost, risk, insurance, and export responsibilities
  • Mode selection compares air, sea, road, rail, and multimodal options
  • Freight forwarder instructions specify cargo, routing, documentation, and delivery contacts
  • Dimensional weight calculations inform airfreight costing and consolidation decisions
  • Transport plans sequence collection, loading, transit, border crossing, and receipt
  • Cargo insurance requirements align declared value, route risk, and policy exclusions

Participants can prepare documentation and coordination actions for cross-border relief shipments.

  • Customs documentation includes invoices, packing lists, certificates, and waybills
  • Duty exemptions require early engagement with authorities and supporting documents
  • Commodity restrictions checked before shipment booking and supplier dispatch
  • Temporary import procedures protect accountability for vehicles and equipment
  • Border clearance trackers record status, blockers, owners, and escalation dates
  • Broker performance monitored against clearance time, cost, and documentation accuracy

Participants can establish safe warehouse systems that preserve stock accuracy and commodity quality.

  • Warehouse layout separates receiving, quarantine, storage, picking, and dispatch areas
  • Goods received notes confirm quantities, condition, discrepancies, and custody transfer
  • Bin cards and stock ledgers maintain transaction-level inventory records
  • FIFO and FEFO methods protect stock rotation and expiry management
  • Cycle counts investigate variances before formal physical inventory adjustments
  • Fire safety, access control, pest management, and housekeeping inspections scheduled

Participants can plan controlled movement of relief supplies to operational delivery points.

  • Route planning considers access constraints, security updates, fuel, and checkpoints
  • Vehicle allocation matches payload, road conditions, cargo type, and distance
  • Dispatch documents record consignee, quantities, vehicle details, and handover evidence
  • Proof of delivery procedures confirm receipt, discrepancies, and beneficiary location
  • Fleet logs capture mileage, fuel consumption, maintenance, and driver assignments
  • Transport contingency plans define rerouting, transshipment, escorts, and communication protocols

Participants can align supply delivery with safe, accountable and documented distribution arrangements.

  • Distribution plans link beneficiary lists, commodity allocations, sites, and schedules
  • Segregation of duties separates stock release, transport, distribution, and reconciliation
  • Community feedback mechanisms capture complaints about quality, access, and conduct
  • Post-distribution monitoring tests receipt, use, appropriateness, and unmet needs
  • Waybills, distribution lists, and returns reconcile commodity movement records
  • Protection considerations inform site layout, queue management, and communication methods

Participants can identify supply-chain disruptions and prepare practical mitigation and continuity actions.

  • ISO 31000 risk registers capture cause, event, impact, owner, and treatment
  • Risk scoring ranks likelihood and consequence against agreed operational thresholds
  • Single-source dependency analysed through alternate suppliers, routes, and stock buffers
  • Security incidents trigger defined communication, suspension, and cargo recovery actions
  • Business continuity plans prioritise critical commodities, systems, suppliers, and personnel
  • Early warning indicators monitor border closures, inflation, conflict, and weather

Participants can monitor supply performance and produce evidence for operational and donor decisions.

  • Key performance indicators measure procurement cycle time and supplier delivery reliability
  • Pipeline reports compare ordered, in-transit, received, and distributed quantities
  • Procurement files organised for approvals, competition, contracting, and payment evidence
  • Donor rules checked for thresholds, origin restrictions, visibility, and asset requirements
  • Variance analysis explains budget, quantity, lead-time, and stock discrepancies
  • Management reports highlight decisions, risks, bottlenecks, and required escalation

Participants can build, review and present a complete emergency procurement and logistics response package.

  • Response scenario translated into prioritised requirements, budgets, and delivery milestones
  • Procurement strategy selects methods, approvals, supplier routes, and control measures
  • Logistics plan defines transport modes, customs actions, warehousing, and distribution
  • Risk register assigns mitigation actions, contingency triggers, and accountable owners
  • Performance dashboard tracks sourcing, delivery, stock, quality, and distribution evidence
  • Peer review tests feasibility, compliance, coordination, and decision rationale

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Emergency procurement strategy template
  2. Rapid market assessment template
  3. Supplier evaluation matrix
  4. Emergency logistics and transport plan
  5. Warehouse and inventory control checklist
  6. Integrated supply-chain risk register

Who should attend

  • Procurement Officers — need faster, defensible purchasing decisions during emergency activation
  • Logistics Officers — coordinate transport, warehousing, fleet and last-mile supply movement
  • Supply Chain Managers — establish controls across emergency sourcing and distribution activities
  • Programme Managers — align relief requirements, budgets and delivery priorities with supply plans
  • Emergency Response Coordinators — manage operational dependencies during rapid-onset or protracted crises
  • Finance and Compliance Staff — verify procurement files, donor conditions and payment evidence

Skills and tools covered

Emergency procurement planningSupplier due diligenceHumanitarian logistics coordinationWarehouse inventory controlTransport risk managementDonor compliance assurance

Tools and standards

Sphere Handbook, Core Humanitarian Standard, Incoterms 2020, ISO 31000

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish methods, standards and decision rules, followed by case work drawn from humanitarian relief operations. Participants analyse supplier markets, prepare procurement documents, plan transport movements, review warehouse records and respond to changing scenario information. Group exercises and timed simulations test coordination between procurement, logistics, programme, finance and security functions. Facilitated peer review is used to test assumptions, identify control gaps and improve each participant’s emergency response package. Application planning links the course tools to current or anticipated assignments.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic experience in procurement, logistics, programme delivery, finance, warehousing, transport or emergency response. They should understand routine purchasing documents such as requisitions, quotations, purchase orders and invoices, or have worked alongside colleagues who use them. Familiarity with humanitarian operations, donor-funded projects or relief commodities is useful but not essential. The course does not require prior specialist knowledge of customs law, international trade terms, advanced spreadsheet modelling, formal supply-chain qualifications or previous deployment to an emergency operation.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should understand basic purchasing, logistics, programme delivery or finance processes. Prior humanitarian deployment is useful but not required, and the course explains emergency-specific methods from first principles.

Bring a laptop if possible, along with a current procurement plan, logistics challenge or anonymised operational documents. Participants can use their own materials when building the response package, but course templates are provided.

It is designed for procurement, logistics, supply-chain, programme, finance and emergency coordination staff. It is most useful for people who support relief operations or expect to take part in emergency activation.

The course focuses on decisions made under emergency conditions: urgent demand, disrupted markets, donor restrictions, cross-border constraints and humanitarian accountability. General commercial methods are used only where they fit relief operations.

Participants leave with templates and a completed procurement and logistics response package that can be adapted to their organisation’s procedures. The methods support current operations, preparedness planning and post-response improvement work.

The first week builds core emergency procurement, supplier management and transport planning skills. The second week focuses on warehousing, distribution, risk, reporting and a final integrated response package; each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 with about 6.5 contact hours.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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