ASSORT: Reducing the cost of humanitarian logistics - standardizing aid for sorting in the supply chain

Session Submission Type: Professional Development Workshop

Abstract

Aid Standards for Sorting (ASSORT) are a set of interoperability standards that are designed to homogenize aid shipments across the grassroots humanitarian sector in order to enable more efficient supply chains, and ultimately facilitate faster aid distributions (from ordering to distribution). The necessity of these standards was identified by grassroots humanitarian practitioners, who routinely face backlogs in shipments, excessive sorting times and wastage that ultimately hinder responsiveness and capacities. In fact, logistics account for an estimated 60-80% of total humanitarian costs.
GivingTuesday, in collaboration with ASSORT partners, have designed research to iteratively test and refine ASSORT with grassroots humanitarian partners through adopting and trailing Boxtributes’ platform and ASSORT. This panel will discuss the design, deployment, and findings of the ASSORT project with implications for humanitarian organizations and future research.
Panelists: Representatives from Boxtribute, DistributeAid, GivingTuesday Data Commons, Academic partners, Flexport
Audience: Researchers and participants interested in grassroots mobilization, crisis and generosity, nonprofit organizations and executives
Keywords: Crisis mobilization, logistics, grassroots, volunteering, donations, supply chains

Sub Unit

• Special Sessions

Presenters

• Tan Madhavan, GivingTuesday

• Sara Lonegard, Distribute Aid