The Boston Consulting Group has been paid more than $1 million for work with private companies seeking to move food to Gaza by sea. Around the same time, the Financial Times learned that they began a controversial relationship with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The consulting company’s team was working with Fogbow, aid distribution group led by US military veterans, to sail humanitarian aid in the barge on a Qatar-funded project that, according to those familiar with the work, said it was aimed at sailing humanitarian aid from Cyprus to Gaza.
Details of the allocation show that the BCG was pleased with multiple private sector efforts and alliances to provide relief to Gaza outside the traditional, unpublished system.
After the initial period of providing pro bono advice, BCG has charged over $1 million to the Geneva-based Maritime Humanitarian Foundation for work to support Fogbow between March and February 2024, people said.
The MHAF was designed by Fogbow’s founder and acted as a conduit for international funding for the scheme, including tens of millions of dollars committed by the Qatar government. BCG charged the foundation a discounted fee, people said.
Unlike the GHF work led by the company’s US defense practice partners, the Fogbow project was led by European BCG partners, including the company’s humanitarian response practices.
Those familiar with the project include establishing Swiss MHAF entities and assisting in compiling shared monthly reports with other administrative tasks of the Qatar government and foundation.
“In spring 2024, BCG worked with the Maritime Humanitarian Foundation to help the foundation develop its early years,” the consulting company said in a statement.
“This engagement followed the BCG client acceptance procedure. The project was subjected to a robust internal monitoring process, including an internal review panel and real-time assessment.”
The consulting company is facing a reputational crisis as a result of revelations about other Gaza-related jobs, helping to set up and provide operational advice to GHF, which ran from October 2024 until the BCG boss stopped the project in May.
Earlier this month, the FT revealed that the project had expanded to modelling the costs of relocating hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from postwar Gaza models and crushed enclaves.
BCG said it fired two US partners who led the GHF work, ignored the approval process and failed to comply with the order to not carry out post-war modeling work. This week, the company stripped two senior executives, including the Chief Risk Officer, for their leadership roles.
Fogbow’s plan was devised early in the war in Gaza and sought to create a maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza. Gaza is a concept supported by the EU and others as a means of overcoming the barriers Israel has placed in the entry of aid.
Israel had stifled the invasion of aid from an unpublished system on traditional land routes, claiming it was being stolen by Hamas. At the same time, the far-right minister advocated the use of aid as leverage in conflict.
Fogbow’s team, including former US diplomats and military authorities, leveraged relations between the US and Israeli governments and several Gulf countries to establish the maritime corridors with at least some approval from the Israeli government, said the two familiar with the issue.
The aid would have scanned Cyprus weapons and carried them to the barge to the point of Gaza’s coastline.
The plan was ultimately overtaken by President Joe Biden’s announcement that US troops would build a floating pier on the Gaza coastline to transport aid from Cyprus from May 2024.
“We feed people, but we’re still trying to feed people. It’s tough, hard work, do you know?” said MHAF executive director and former US ambassador, Cameron Hume of South Africa and Indonesia. “We do this by partnering with trusted humanitarian organizations and working with logistics experts such as Fogbow.”
Fogbow eventually sent around 200 tons of aid to Gaza via the jetty and overland that he tried to avoid, about 900 tons of aid through Israel’s Ashdod port.
US piers fell apart several times by the waves of the Mediterranean, falling into poverty after less than a month of business.
BCG staff supported MHAF “administratively and strategically” according to those familiar with the work. The MHAF helped set standards that should be used to evaluate contractors, such as whether to replace Fogbows, and was advised on the employment of foundation employees.
As the marine aid project was overtaken by US piers, BCG staff also participated in the workshop to discuss how the foundation would expand its work beyond Gaza.
The two familiar with Fogbow’s plans said Fogbow and the BCG did not consider the use of civilian military contractors or the relocation of Palestinians.
Fogbow and Mhaf say they have provided over 10 million meals in Gaza when Palestinians faced crisis levels of hunger, and have since brought important relief in Sudan and South Sudan.
The US and Israel support the GHF as the most effective way to bring aid to Gaza, but fail to secure wider multilateral support and has been criticized by the United Nations as “fig leaf” for the purposes of the Israeli war. The launch has been undermined by the deaths of hundreds of Gazans who fired fire from Israeli soldiers on a journey to support distribution sites run by private security contractors.
BCG said it was withdrawn from GHF’s $4 million contract at the end of May and will not be paid at this time.
The GHF said it delivered nearly 70 million meals directly to people in Gaza and accused consulting firms of “corporate coronavirus.”
“Under pressure from the United Nations and partner agencies, BCG has abandoned the mission they once supported as it began to affect their revenue,” he said in a social media post Friday.
BCG refused to respond.
