A former senior World Food Programme official has urged the United Nations to consider giving private operators more responsibility for aid delivery, raising questions about who would control procurement and accountability.
Mageed Yahia, a former senior WFP official, made the case in an Oct. 30 opinion essay published by The National. He said private firms could take on the operating chain, from buying supplies to delivering them, where conditions allow. Humanitarian agencies would set safeguards and standards, assess needs and independently review performance. Yahia’s proposal is an individual view; the UN has not announced a policy adopting it.
The proposal comes as the UN works on changes to its own humanitarian system. UN80, launched in March 2025, includes the New Humanitarian Compact, which aims to focus humanitarian plans, coordinate supply chains, expand shared services and connect agencies’ data efforts. An April 2026 UN80 progress report said integrated supply-chain pilots were underway in Afghanistan, Haiti, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Somalia and Sudan. The pilots cover coordinated purchasing, international logistics and delivery within each setting; they do not show that the UN has adopted Yahia’s contracting proposal.
Commercial shipments into Gaza offer a separate measure of private-sector activity. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cited Gaza Chamber of Commerce data shared with the Cash Working Group indicating that the private sector collected 884 commercial truckloads into the Gaza Strip from Sept. 7-13. Of those, 290 loads, or 33%, carried items classified as non-essential. OCHA’s report, dated Sept. 18 and published Sept. 21, said the UN can confirm supplies only when they are tracked through the UN 2720 Mechanism. The commercial tally does not establish that the shipments were humanitarian aid deliveries.
Yahia said private operators’ profits depend on demand backed by purchasing power. He also argued that a larger private role would require aid organizations to strengthen needs assessments, beneficiary identification, standards, monitoring and accountability.
Under-Secretary-General Guy Ryder briefed member states on the UN80 Action Plan on Nov. 21, 2025. The plan does not identify a decision on Yahia’s proposal.
