UNHRD is established in Brindisi, Italy. With the relocation of the humanitarian depot from Pisa to Brindisi, WFP establishes a logistics hub that can provide services globally to the humanitarian community.

The Humanitarian Reform Agenda introduces several new elements to enhance predictability, accountability and partnership on crises response. WFP is chosen as the lead agency of the Logistics and the Emergency Telecommunications Clusters and the co-lead of the Food Security Cluster. The new cluster approach is first used for the response to the earthquake in Pakistan in October.

The Tsunami in 2004 and the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005 were turning points in the history of UNHRD. In addition, crises in Darfur and Niger, led to WFP establishing a more robust supply chain platform that could rapidly respond to several crises simultatenously. The concept developed in Brindisi is replicated in strategic locations across the world, starting with the establishment of UNHRD Dubai in 2006.

In January, UNHRD Accra starts operating with an air shipment to N’Djamena, Chad. The hub was established adjacent to the Kotoka International Airport in the previous year.

UNHRD Panama is officially opened
in November. The hub supported responses to the earthquake in Peru and Bolivia and Hurricane Felix
 in Nicaragua the year before.

UNHRD Kuala Lumpur formally starts operating in Malaysia. During the Tsunami response in 2004, Malaysia hosted a UNHRD staging area to store and dispatch relief items to the affected areas.

The Ebola epidemic impacts West Africa.
UNHRD Accra is pivotal as a regional staging area,
 also hosting the headquarters of the United Nations Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER). Recognizing the need to respond to new types of emergencies, UNHRD establishes a research and development capability to facilitate innovations for emergency preparedness and response.

The UN Secretary-General affirms the need
for “a comprehensive whole-of-system response, including greater cooperation and complementarity among development, disaster risk reduction, humanitarian action (to) attaining the Sustainable Development Goals”.

WFP offers its expertise and infrastructure to support the humanitarian community to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. UNHRD is at the foundation of this platform of services. Its hubs are used to move crucial items to the final country of destination, and provide additional support to WFP’s response through other supply chain services.

On 30 June 2021, UNHRD hosts a G20 ministerial event in Brindisi on “The role
 of logistics in preparedness and response for Covid-19 pandemic and future humanitarian and health crisis”. On this occasion, WFP and WHO launch INITIATE2, a multi-partner initiative around product development for health humanitarian responses.

INITIATE2 partners convene at the Brindisi hub in 2022 to work on a mobile infectious diseases treatment module. The initiative is included in the list of “Actions for strong and inclusive recovery” of the G20 Declaration announced at the Bali Summit in Indonesia.