TNT and the World Food Programme
What is it?
TNT is a private sector delivery company. It is a partner in the United Nations World Food Programme. This programme provides food aid to over 90 million people across the world each year.
What was the impetus for the partnership?
In 2001, the Chief Executive of TNT became aware of the horrifying number of children in the developing world dying of hunger every hour, despite there being enough food produced annually to feed the global population. He identified that TNT’s core business function – logistics - was at the heart of the problem. He believed that TNT could work jointly with the United Nations World Food Programme for the benefit of those facing starvation worldwide.
Resources
In 2004 TNT committed 8.5m Euro in the partnership of which 7m were in kind donations of services and knowledge transfer and 1.5m was in cash donations. In 2005 this was increased to 9.6m Euro.
TNT supports the World Food Programme through advising on the logistics of the World Food Programme; assistance with disaster management; collaboration on private sector fundraising; assistance with accounting, finance and human resources; and promoting employee volunteering.
TNT believes that in addition to helping tackle worldwide problems, this partnership has resulted in organisational benefits:
• Employee morale – involvement in the programme has helped to boost morale and job satisfaction, which can result in increased productivity
• Publicity – the partnership has produced positive publicity opportunities, in a world where corporate social responsibility is becoming increasingly important
• Knowledge sharing – the World Food Programme is able to pass knowledge and experience to TNT through joint working
Critical Success Factors
TNT believes that this partnership has been successful due to:
• Senior management commitment – high level management buy-in to the principles of partnership and collaboration have been essential. This ensures the commitment of time and resources across both organisations. It also conveys to employees the priority that each organisation attaches to the partnership.
• Formal agreements - the structure of the partnership is laid out in a Memorandum of Understanding. It confirms the commitment of TNT and WFP to the partnership for 5 years, with a comprehensive review of the partnership after 2 years. Building in such features to the agreement prevents the partnership from continuing beyond its shelf life and also gives the opportunity for changes and restructuring after a suitable bedding in period.
• Identifying core activities – the partnership is split into five core initiatives, each supported by one TNT Board Member and a World Food Programme executive.
Find out more
More information is available at TNT/WFP partnership.
