Logistics Moving the Seeds of a Brighter Future (UNJLC's Second Year in Afghanistan)

This case describes the activities of the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC), activated in response to the Afghanistan crisis, during its second phase. The UNJLC dealt with operational and logistics bottlenecks within Afghanistan. However, it got also involved in the country’s most strategic nation-building initiatives from the logistics perspective raising the issue of its boundaries and mandate as a humanitarian emergency facility.

This case covers the evolution of UNJLC�s roles and functions throughout its deployment period, revealing the potential and boundaries of the concept in different emergency situations. It allows students i) to appreciate the difficulties of achieving objectives in extremely difficult settings and ii) to discuss the relationship between relevance and need for the facility versus such soft issues such as challenges of innovation in big organizations, coordination among independent agencies, and acceptance versus formal institutionalization.