We are happy to announce that we completed the End To End Supply Chain Management training for St. Maarten that is being given by World Food Programme.

This is also the first ever training organized between the Government of Sint Maarten and K1 Britannia Foundation.

The participants range from the various ESF’s/entities such as GEBE, Fire Department, Government Affairs, VSA, Red Cross and community development.

Present also were private sector partners of St. Maarten and/or World Food Programme such Tropical Shipping, DHL, Maersk, Princess Juliana In’t Airport, and the Port of St. Maarten.

Throughout the training, presentations will also be given by World Food Programme (WFP) and CDEMA – Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency.

As this hurricane season is in full effect, K1 is excited to be able to help bring key stakeholders together to learn, grow and plan for supply chain management during disasters.

WFP Supply Chain Management Training Recap: Day 1 & 2

Day 1: The training started with an introduction to CDEMA – Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, World Food Programme (WFP) and K1 Britannia Foundation. Participants also received a presentation on the disaster cycle (preparedness levels, emergency, and a timeline up to 6 weeks after). In 4 teams, participants placed tasks/ responsibilities such as – situation reports, social media alerts, and coordination meetings – along the timeline within the phase they where relevant to.

Maersk also had a presentation where they explained their logistical capabilities, international disaster management activities and procedures to request assistance.

Day 2: Day two kicked off with participants learning about key elements of supply chain and logistics planning and propositioning, and vulnerability analysis/ mapping.

We continued with a group activity about a fictional island with similar characteristics to St. Maarten. They planned out the emergency preparedness phase with an impending cat 4 hurricane expected to hit land in five days (How fun!). The activity got a bit more challenging when participants got an update, learning that the hurricane was now expected in 48hrs. They had to re-evaluate their initial concerns in phase one and outline steps involved to achieve tasks such as moving goods and evacuating large districts.

The day ended with a presentation from WFP and Rene Savelsbergh as an expert on civil military collaboration.

It’s really great to see how interactive the training is, and how much there is to learn from each organization. We will keep you posted with more updates!

WFP Supply Chain Management Training Recap: Day 3 & 4

Day 3: Joy Arnell of ESF7 (Government of Sint Maarten) and Priya of K1 Britannia Foundation gave a presentation on the key undertakings that must be in place for the preparation, immediate aftermath and long-term response of a disaster.

Joy & Priya allowed the presentation to be interactive, as others were able to share valuable information and input, as this information will be used for the basis of the procedure of the end2end supply chain.

Rene Savelsbergh gave a presentation on the Dutch military, their organizational structure, capabilities, operations and how others can request assistance, as it differs from island to island.

DHL resented on their disaster response programs such as GARD (Get Airports Ready For Disasters), and Chiara Dara of World Food Programme(WFP) also presented on targeting to ensure that those most vulnerable receive the assistance they need.

Like every day, the training is comprised of group activities to apply the theory introduced.

Day 4: The last day of the training was a day to summarize theories learned, but participants also learned about various distribution sites and the considerations with the types of distributions.

The NutVal App, a spreadsheet application for planning and monitoring the nutritional content of general food aid rations was introduced to participants. Participants worked in groups to answer various exercises to understand the app and how the information produced can help in decision making.

As CDEMA – Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency is developing a disaster management app, the last session involved brainstorming what sort of features a disaster management app should have. Participants received a post-training exam and feedback survey to officially end the training.

For those who were interested, Curtis Callender of Port St. Maarten gave a quick tour of the harbor at the end of the day.