Boston Consulting Group was paid greater than $1mn for work with a personal US firm making an attempt to maneuver meals into Gaza by sea, over the identical interval it started a controversial affiliation with the Gaza Humanitarian Basis, the Monetary Occasions has discovered.
A staff from the consulting agency labored with Fogbow, an support supply group led by US navy veterans, on a Qatar-funded mission that aimed to sail humanitarian support on barges into Gaza from Cyprus, in keeping with individuals accustomed to the work.
Particulars of the project point out that BCG was keen to ally itself with a number of non-public sector efforts to supply aid to Gaza outdoors the normal UN-led system, an method support teams argue dangers undermining humanitarian rules by introducing business concerns.
After an preliminary interval offering professional bono recommendation, BCG went on to invoice the Geneva-based Maritime Humanitarian Support Basis greater than $1mn for the work helping Fogbow between March 2024 and February this yr, the individuals mentioned.
MHAF was designed by Fogbow’s founders to behave as a conduit for worldwide funding for its plans, together with tens of tens of millions of {dollars} dedicated by the federal government of Qatar. BCG charged the inspiration a reduced fee, the individuals mentioned.
Not like the GHF work that was led by companions from the agency’s US defence apply, the Fogbow mission was led by BCG companions from Europe, together with from the agency’s humanitarian response apply.
It included serving to arrange an MHAF entity in Switzerland, compiling month-to-month experiences that had been shared with the federal government of Qatar, and different administrative duties for the inspiration, in keeping with individuals accustomed to the mission.
“In spring 2024, BCG was engaged by the Maritime Humanitarian Support Basis to help the inspiration’s early improvement,” the consulting agency mentioned in an announcement.
“This engagement adopted BCG’s shopper acceptance procedures. The mission was topic to our sturdy inside oversight course of, together with inside overview panels and real-time analysis.”
The consulting agency is dealing with a reputational disaster on account of revelations about its different Gaza-related work, serving to to arrange and supply operational recommendation to the GHF, which ran from October 2024 till BCG bosses shut down the mission in Might.
The FT revealed earlier this month that the mission prolonged to modelling a postwar Gaza and the prices of relocating tons of of hundreds of Palestinians from the shattered enclave.
BCG fired the 2 US companions that led the GHF work, saying they ignored approval processes and disobeyed an order to not do the postwar modelling work. This week the agency stripped two senior executives, together with its chief threat officer, of their management roles.
Fogbow’s plan was conceived earlier within the struggle in Gaza and was an try to create a maritime hall from Cyprus to Gaza, an idea backed by the EU and others as a method to beat obstacles Israel had positioned on the entry of support.
Israel had throttled the entry of support from a UN-led system on conventional land routes, claiming that it was being stolen by Hamas. On the identical time far-right ministers advocated the usage of support as leverage within the battle.
Fogbow’s staff, which included former US diplomats and navy officers, had leveraged their connections within the US and Israeli governments, and several other Gulf nations, to obtain at the very least some approvals from the Israeli authorities to arrange the maritime hall, two individuals accustomed to the matter mentioned.
The help would have been scanned for weapons in Cyprus and transported on barges to a degree on the Gaza shoreline, which might have been dredged to permit the barges to unload the provides.
The plans had been finally overtaken by an announcement by President Joe Biden that the US navy was going to construct a floating pier on the Gaza shoreline to move support from Cyprus beginning in Might 2024.
“We fed individuals, and we’re nonetheless making an attempt to feed individuals. It’s arduous, arduous work, you realize?,” mentioned Cameron Hume, the chief director of MHAF, and former US Ambassador to Algeria, South Africa and Indonesia. “We do that by partnering with trusted humanitarian organisations and by working with logistics consultants like Fogbow and others.”
Fogbow finally despatched about 200 tons of support into Gaza through the pier, and about 900 tons by way of the Israeli port of Ashdod and on the identical land routes it had sought to keep away from.
The US pier broke aside a number of occasions within the Mediterranean waves, and was mothballed after lower than a month of operations.
BCG employees supported MHAF “administratively and strategically”, in keeping with an individual accustomed to the work. It helped set standards that MHAF ought to use to judge contractors, together with whether or not Fogbow must be changed, and suggested on the hiring of basis workers.
Because the maritime support mission was overtaken by the US pier, BCG employees additionally participated in workshops to debate how the inspiration may increase its work past Gaza, the particular person mentioned.
Two individuals accustomed to Fogbow’s plans mentioned that at no level did Fogbow or BCG contemplate the usage of non-public navy contractors or the relocation of Palestinians.
Fogbow and MHAF say that their shipments offered greater than 10mn meals in Gaza at a time when Palestinians had been dealing with disaster ranges of starvation, and that it has additionally subsequently offered important aid in Sudan and South Sudan.
The US and Israel have backed the GHF as the simplest technique to convey support into Gaza, nevertheless it did not safe wider multilateral help and has been condemned by the UN as a “fig leaf” for Israeli struggle goals. Its launch has been marred by the deaths of tons of of Gazans, who’ve come underneath fireplace from Israeli troopers on the journey to assist distribution websites operated by its non-public safety contractors.
BCG pulled out of a $4mn contract for GHF on the finish of Might, saying it is not going to now take cost.
GHF mentioned it had delivered almost 70mn meals on to the individuals of Gaza and accused the consulting agency of “company cowardice” for distancing itself.
“Underneath stress from the UN and affiliated establishments . . . BCG deserted a mission they as soon as supported as a result of it began to affect their backside line,” it mentioned In a social media publish on Friday.
BCG declined to reply.
