UNITED NATIONS LAUNCHES WEB TOOL TO MAP EMERGENCY STOCKPILES

(Geneva/New York, 8 October 2010): The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Logistics Cluster, led by the World Food Programme (WFP), today launched an interactive web-based tool, "Global Mapping of Emergency Stockpiles," which displays information on emergency relief warehouses managed by international humanitarian organizations. The aim of this tool is to assist affected countries and humanitarian relief agencies identify and send emergency relief items in response to crises.

The Global Mapping of Emergency Stockpiles was established thanks to funding provided by ECHO and the Governments of Luxembourg and Moldova. It is the only existing central platform that emphasizes "who has what were" by region, sector, organization and/or organization type. The development of the Global Mapping of Emergency Stockpiles is a major part of the humanitarian community's efforts to improve emergency response. It contains data about 39 stockpiles from 25 organizations. Information has been so far provided by UN agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and a number of governmental entities. OCHA is in discussion with other stockpile owners to expand the content of the database.

The new Global Mapping of Emergency Stockpiles is available at www.humanitarianinfo.org/stockmap