DUBAI, UAE, January 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai, has commissioned work to triple the size of his International City of Aid (IHC) to streamline and strengthen operations to support aid agencies. Upon completion, the IHC will now stretch for a further 300,000 square feet, totalling 404,000 square feet.
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Intensifying conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria and other trouble spots have led to mass displacement of over 65 million people and a sharp rise in the need for emergency aid in the form of food, shelter, and medicine. Demand for such aid is now at its highest level worldwide since World War II and aid agencies need additional warehousing and logistics support to cope.
The expansion has been approved in order to meet the urgent demands of leading UN and NGO agencies trying to cope with this rising demand, most notably the Red Crescent, UNHCR, ICRC, and the World Food Programme. Specifically, the new space will help IHC members better pre-position stocks in the event of new pandemics, natural disasters and more armed conflicts and conduct more training of aid workers.
Founded in 2003, the International Humanitarian City is already the world's largest humanitarian logistics hub and has nine United Nations agencies as members plus nearly 50 NGOs and businesses working in the aid sector. When it moved to its current location in Dubai Industrial City near Jebel Ali Port and Al Maktoum Airport in 2011 it tripled in size, but demand for more space has continued to climb rapidly.
The IHC has played a pivotal role in first responses to crises in places as far away as Haiti and Vanuatu, but is especially critical in moving goods to trouble spots in the MENA region and East Africa.
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