Did you know that MSF has its own humanitarian supply chain and procurement agency?  While other organisations rely on third parties to supply and distribute aid, MSF maintains an independent and vertically integrated supply chain which enables us to deliver medical assistance and better respond to the needs of the patients worldwide. More than 1.500 supply professionals work tirelessly to get medical aid at the right places at an acceptable level of cost.

At four MSF logistical centres based in Europe and east Africa, we buy, test, store and package supplies, including vehicles, power supplies, water processing facilities, medicines and nutritional supplements. We also keep emergency supplies in Central America and east Asia. In Belgium, our procurement agency is called MSF Supply. 

Working for msf in supply

At the heart of this supply process are our supply professionals, who ensure that we get medicines and equipment where they're needed, when they're needed. MSF is always looking for qualified supply professionals who are willing to put their skills at the service of those most in need. The MSF field recruitment works with a system of spontaneous applications. If you are recruited - after a competencies based selection process - you are placed in  a 'pool' or a database of available aid workers. As soon as a project has a suitable position for you, we send you on mission.

The professionals who work in supply for MSF needs specific skills linked to:

1. The nature of the goods; i.e. we provide mainly drugs and specific non-medical items that require specific conditions (controlled temperature) all along the chain to guarantee the quality up to the beneficiaries.
2. The diversity of the supply sources; i.e. local, regional or international

These are the profiles we need:

• Supply chain manager
• Procurement manager
• Warehouse manager

For more  news  check out the Linkedin group Supply chain in MSF.

Meet our supply colleagues

From collecting supplies from an MSF plane on a makeshift runway to working with the pharmacy manager and medical team to forecast medical supplies months in advance, the work of a supply manager is far reaching and vital to the whole team.

Johanna Linder, Supply chain manager at MSF since 2011, explains our supply chain in emergency and non-emergency projects in this podcast. 

Procurement manager Ezster works in Beirut, Lebanon, and is in charge of procuring all the medical supply and all other equipment necessary for the projects in the region.

Henri, Supply Manager in Guinea, shares the story a successful measles vaccination campaign organised by the Ministry of Health and MSF in the prefecture of Kouroussa, some 600 km from Conakry in Guinea

Anna from Ukraine, Mati from Pakistan and Safi from Afghanistan are three supply specialists working in their respective countries for MSF.  Read their story