01 / Humanitarian and development organisations
Logistics and procurement for UN agencies and NGOs in Afghanistan.
Zhikal Logistics Services supports UN agencies, international and national NGOs and donor-funded development programmes in Afghanistan — procurement, transport, warehousing, distribution, cash administration and event management, delivered under task orders and closed out with the documentation an audit will ask for.
Prequalification at a glance.
The facts a procurement panel checks before shortlisting a supplier. Full registration, tax and compliance documents, completion certificates and references are provided on request.
- Registration
- Business licence D-40232 and TIN 9000451071. Afghan-owned, established 2011.
- UNGM vendor number
- 915887 — a supplier registration in the United Nations Global Marketplace, not an endorsement, accreditation or contract award.
- Geographic coverage
- All 34 provinces through five regional zones coordinated from Kabul, Jalalabad, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar and Herat, with field reach to more than 250 districts.
- Delivery documentation
- Quotation comparisons, inspection records, GRNs, waybills, delivery notes, distribution lists and reconciliations, in the client's own format.
- Field controls
- Supplier due diligence, segregation of duties, inspection against specification, signed codes of conduct, PSEA briefings and route risk assessment.
- Track record
- Ten contracts for seven client organisations between 2019 and 2026, including a nationwide NFI retainer active through December 2026.
How Zhikal works with them.
A humanitarian or development contract in Afghanistan is judged twice: once on whether the goods reached the right people on the agreed date, and again months later on whether the file proves it. Zhikal is built for the second test as much as the first. Every assignment produces quotation comparisons, inspection records, goods received notes, waybills, distribution and attendance records, photographs and a reconciliation, prepared in the client's own reporting format rather than in ours.
The operating model suits how these organisations buy. Most engagements run as task orders drawn from a framework or retainer: the client issues a requirement, Zhikal confirms specification, price, delivery locations and dates, and the work mobilises without a fresh procurement cycle each time. The current nationwide non-food-item retainer runs on exactly this basis through December 2026, covering market research, pre-financed procurement, quality assurance, warehousing, transport and accountability records across 28 listed item categories. For teams preparing a requirement, the guide to procurement planning for NGOs covers what to settle before a requisition is raised, and the NFI and hygiene-kit procurement guide shows how specifications, inspection and delivery evidence are handled.
Programme teams also need one partner rather than several. A distribution in Uruzgan is a sourcing problem, a storage problem, a transport problem and an evidence problem at once, and splitting it across suppliers moves the coordination burden onto the programme officer. Zhikal takes the whole chain under one contract and one named project lead, with regional coordinators who live in the zone they cover. The assignments behind this are listed among our projects.
Zhikal is an independent Afghan-owned company. It has delivered assignments for UN agencies, international NGOs and national organisations since 2011; those relationships are contractual, and nothing on this site should be read as endorsement, accreditation or affiliation by any of them.
What this audience needs from a logistics partner
Suppliers who can actually reach the district
A vendor list that stops at provincial capitals is a plan that fails in the last forty kilometres. Field reach extends to more than 250 districts, and where access is restricted, locally recruited teams and community focal points carry the work.
Competitive sourcing that survives review
Market research on file, like-for-like quotation comparison and written client approval before any commitment is made.
Evidence produced as the work happens
GRNs, waybills, delivery notes, beneficiary acknowledgements and photographs captured in the field, not reconstructed at closeout.
Mobilisation inside a programme timeline
Standing supplier relationships, and pre-financing where the contract requires it, let a task order move from award to first delivery without a new tender.
One accountable point of contact
A named project lead in Kabul answerable for sourcing, storage, movement, delivery and the file — not five vendors and a coordination meeting.
Work in the language of the location
Field teams, interpreters and beneficiary-facing staff operating in Dari, Pashto and English as the location requires.
The services this audience engages.
Each capability is scoped and priced on its own terms and can be engaged without the rest, or combined under one contract with a single project lead accountable for the whole chain.
Procurement & Supply in Afghanistan
Market research, competitive quotation, inspection against specification and verified delivery for programmes that must evidence value for money.
Food, NFI & Hygiene Kits in Afghanistan
Sourcing, kitting and multi-province distribution of food packages, non-food items and hygiene kits, with beneficiary records at handover.
Project Logistics in Afghanistan
One workplan covering sourcing, storage, movement, field delivery and closeout when a programme needs a single accountable partner.
Events & Field Support in Afghanistan
Workshops, training and stakeholder consultations with attendance controls, per-diem administration and a reconciled financial file.
Cash Administration in Afghanistan
Beneficiary and participant payments with identity verification, individual acknowledgements and daily reconciliation.
Warehousing in Afghanistan
Receipt, stock control, secure storage and dispatch with an audit trail from arrival to proof of delivery.
Road Transport & Freight in Afghanistan
Inter-provincial freight and last-mile delivery into districts beyond the capitals, with waybills and signed delivery notes.
Vehicle Rental & Fleet in Afghanistan
4x4s, pickups and vans with drivers for survey, monitoring and distribution teams, including concurrent deployments across provinces.
Digital Solutions in Afghanistan
Structured data capture and dashboards so field records reach programme reports without being retyped.
Controls a donor-funded contract needs.
Compliance requirements differ by donor and by agency, so controls are agreed against the contract rather than assumed. These are the ones applied by default.
- Supplier due diligence
- Licensing, capacity, references and conflict-of-interest checks before a supplier is engaged on a client's work.
- Competitive sourcing
- A written quotation comparison and approval, so the selection decision can be reviewed after the fact.
- Quality inspection
- Specification, quantity, expiry and condition verified before dispatch and again on receipt.
- Chain of custody
- GRNs, waybills, delivery notes and recipient evidence linking every item from purchase to handover.
- Financial controls
- Approved budgets, supporting invoices and a reconciliation that ties the payment file to the delivery file.
- Safeguarding and HSE
- Client codes of conduct, PSEA commitments, route assessment and field-risk controls applied to deployed teams.
Market research01
Who can genuinely supply the specification, and at what price, on file before sourcing starts.
Quotation comparison02
Like-for-like quotations compared in writing, so the selection can be reviewed after the fact.
Written approval03
The client's approval before any commitment is made.
Inspection record04
Specification, quantity, expiry and condition verified before dispatch and again on receipt.
Goods received note05
Stock received, counted and signed for at the warehouse.
Waybill06
Each load linked to its route, from the warehouse to the destination.
Distribution and attendance records07
Beneficiary acknowledgements and attendance, captured at handover in the field.
Photographs08
Photographic evidence taken as the work happens, not reconstructed at closeout.
Reconciliation09
The payment file tied to the delivery file, in the client's own reporting format.
Coverage across Afghanistan.
National coordination, finance and project leadership sit at Kabul headquarters. The eastern, northern, southern and western zones are coordinated from Jalalabad, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar and Herat, each with a designated coordinator reporting to Kabul, reaching all 34 provinces and a field network of more than 250 districts. Contracts record delivery by name in Kabul, Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgan, Zabul, Nimroz and Farah, among others.
Every province and its coordination zone →Track record.
UN Women — nationwide non-food-item retainer
An active retainer through December 2026 covering market research, pre-financed procurement, quality assurance, warehousing, transport and accountability records across 28 listed item categories and six delivery corridors.
Case study: NFI retainer & distribution →ASSDO — warehouse management across ten provinces
A 12-month, audit-ready warehouse-management contract spanning delivery, packaging, record-keeping and warranty obligations.
Case study: Warehouse management →OSDRA — cash disbursement and event management
27 workshop days across five provinces, covering venue, catering, participant transport allowances, sound, media and IT equipment, with full payment documentation.
Norwegian Church Aid — NFI, PPE and specialist equipment
Supply and transport of non-food items and PPE tools in Kabul, alongside procurement of a geophysical underground-water detector.
ZALA — large-scale food supply
Food-package procurement and delivery across Helmand, Nimroz, Farah, Zabul and Uruzgan: six commodity lines and more than 71,000 line-item units.
Case study: Five-province food supply →ARADA — food supply
Food supply across four eastern provinces.
Women for Women International — food supply
Food supply across five provinces.
ZALA — stationery supply
Stationery supply across five provinces.
ZALA — nationwide survey support
Vehicles deployed in all 34 provinces for more than seven months, supporting an education-supply survey covering 33 provincial warehouses, 354 district warehouses and 4,537 school stocks.
Case study: Nationwide vehicle deployment →
Assignments are summarised from contracts and completion records supplied by Zhikal. Client names show who the work was for and do not imply endorsement, accreditation or affiliation.
Buying from outside Afghanistan →Common questions.
Is Zhikal affiliated with the United Nations?
What registration details are available for prequalification?
How do we invite Zhikal to an RFQ, EOI or tender?
Can Zhikal work under a task-order framework?
What documentation is handed over at closeout?
Can Zhikal pre-finance procurement?
How quickly can an assignment mobilise?
Which languages do field teams work in?
Operational guidance.
Guide · Procurement and logistics
Choosing a logistics partner in Afghanistan: the questions, the evidence and a comparison worksheet
Start with the scope: work inside Afghanistan, international freight and customs, or both. Then put the same questions to every candidate: who does the work in your provinces, what records come back, how a problem is handled, and whether the quotations price the same thing.
Resource · Procurement and supply
Food package procurement in Afghanistan: specification and quality checklist
There is no standard NGO food basket. A food package is whatever the programme's specification says, line by line. This guide turns that specification into a commodity matrix suppliers can price and an inspection checklist that decides what is accepted, packed and delivered.
Guide · Procurement
Framework agreement or one-off procurement? Choosing the contract for repeat supply in Afghanistan
A framework settles the terms once so each requirement can be called off quickly; a one-off procurement prices one defined need. Which fits depends on how predictable the need is, and either works only when the documents say what is fixed, what each order confirms and what is not promised.
Resource · Procurement and logistics
Logistics RFQ checklist for Afghanistan: what to specify before suppliers price
Quotations for the same assignment differ mostly because the request left something open: where the handover happens, who loads and inspects, which records come back, what the price includes. This checklist and template close those gaps before suppliers price.
Resource · Events and field support
NGO event management RFQ and budget template for Afghanistan
Event quotations only compare when the request fixes the units: meals in participant-days, rooms in room-nights, transport in trips, allowances at your approved rate. This template sets the scope, and its worksheet keeps the organiser's charges apart from payments to participants.
Resource · Procurement
Supplier due diligence checklist for procurement in Afghanistan
Due diligence answers one question: can this supplier, as it actually exists, deliver this contract and account for it? Registration documents start the answer. References, a look at the capacity it will really use and a written record of what was checked finish it.
What to send for a quotation.
01
Specification and quantity
What the item or service is, to what standard, and how many. Where a brand is indicative rather than mandatory, say so — it usually widens the supplier field and lowers the price.
02
Delivery locations
Provinces and, where it matters, districts. A delivered price to Nili is a different number from a delivered price to Kabul, and quoting against the wrong one helps nobody.
03
Timeline
The date the goods or the event are needed, and whether it is fixed. Seasonal access to high-altitude routes can move a realistic delivery window by weeks.
04
Controls and reporting
Donor rules, required documentation, inspection requirements and the reporting format. These shape the price as much as the goods do.
Start a conversation.
Share the scope, the destinations, the controls that apply and the timeline. The reply comes back with the operational approach, not a brochure.
The other sector.
Commercial, institutional and private-sector clients
Procurement, freight, vehicles, storage and event delivery for companies, contractors and institutions operating between Afghan provinces.