Management Research News

Advocacy to promote logistics in humanitarian aid

Michael C. Whiting Beatriz E. Ayala-Öström
Article information:
To cite this document:
Michael C. Whiting Beatriz E. Ayala-Öström, (2009),"Advocacy to promote logistics in humanitarian aid",
Management Research News, Vol. 32 Iss 11 pp. 1081 - 1089
Permanent link to this document:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409170910998309
Downloaded by UNIVERSITAET OSNABRUCK At 22:05 30 January 2016 (PT)

Downloaded on: 30 January 2016, At: 22:05 (PT)

References: this document contains references to 13 other documents.
To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 1744 times since 2009*
Users who downloaded this article also downloaded:
Gyöngyi Kovács, Karen Spens, (2009),"Identifying challenges in humanitarian logistics", International
Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 39 Iss 6 pp. 506-528 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/09600030910985848
Gyöngyi Kovács, Karen M. Spens, (2007),"Humanitarian logistics in disaster relief operations",
International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 37 Iss 2 pp. 99-114 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/09600030710734820
Stephen Pettit, Anthony Beresford, (2009),"Critical success factors in the context of humanitarian aid
supply chains", International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 39 Iss 6 pp.
450-468 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09600030910985811

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:203840 []
For Authors
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for
Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines
are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com
Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company
manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as
providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.
Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee
on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive
preservation.
 *Related content and download information correct at time of download.
Downloaded by UNIVERSITAET OSNABRUCK At 22:05 30 January 2016 (PT)
 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0140-9174.htm

Advocacy to promote logistics in Advocacy to

promote logistics
humanitarian aid
Michael C. Whiting
Global Logistics and Supply Chain Solutions Ltd, Saltash, Cornwall, UK, and
Beatriz E. Ayala-Öström 1081
Interconsult and Partners, Woburn Sands, Bucks, UK
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to examine some of the more effective means of advocacy focused on
promoting the unique role of logistics in the delivery of much needed humanitarian aid, and outlines
Downloaded by UNIVERSITAET OSNABRUCK At 22:05 30 January 2016 (PT)

some of the challenges as experienced in the outcomes of recent disasters such as the Indian Ocean
Tsunami 2004.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws from the limited literature available in
humanitarian relief, the authors’ first hand experience, input from colleagues in humanitarian
logistics performance measures, attitudes in both the private sector and the humanitarian aid sector
and other management factors to discuss how the role of logistics is still undervalued and under
resourced.
Findings – Strategic investment in logistics for humanitarian aid will impact positively on the
delivery of humanitarian aid. Efforts are being made by NGOs, United Nations Agencies and to a
lesser extent the donor community, but these efforts are fragmented.
Practical implications – If logistics in humanitarian relief is supported and valued the
effectiveness and predictability of humanitarian response will improve. Even small improvements in
efficiency in logistics will result in significant savings in logistics costs.
Originality/value – There is little published in logistics for humanitarian relief and disseminating
the importance of logistics in humanitarian aid and the challenges it faces will assist the donor
community, the NGOs and the field logisticians in raising the profile of logistics.
Keywords Performance management, Aid agencies, Service improvements, Disasters, Supply chain
management
Paper type Viewpoint

Introduction
The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 proved beyond doubt that logistics is central to
humanitarian aid (The Fritz Institute, 2005). More than three years later, after
numerous surveys and reports, humanitarian logistics remains undervalued and
under-resourced. Providing ‘‘the right material, at the right place, at the right time, for
the right cost’’ will continue to be an important role for logistics, however, the strategic
focus must be on providing and analysing timely information to gain insight as to how
to improve operations, and learning internationally with others. Hitherto, many
humanitarian relief organisations have focused on ‘‘getting the job done’’ and have put
comparatively little effort into performance measurement other than reporting to
donors on the amount of relief provided and the usage of funds for a given relief
operation (Thomas and Kopczak, 2005).

Humanitarians, both programme and logisticians, with whom the authors have worked in the
field and been fortunate to know over the years, including personnel in headquarters, country
and field level of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations High
Management Research News
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Childrens’ Fund (UNICEF), the United Vol. 32 No. 11, 2009
Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red pp. 1081-1089
# Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Crescent Societies, World Vision International, Tear Fund UK, and the Steering Committee for 0140-9174
Humanitarian Response. DOI 10.1108/01409170910998309
 MRN Most humanitarian organisations have two broad categories of activities:
programmes and support services. In many organisations the focus is on short-term
32,11 direct relief rather than investment in systems and processes that will reduce expenses
or make relief more efficient in the long run. There are notable exceptions to this:
Médecins Sans Frontier, Save the Children Fund (SCF), the International Committee for
the Red Cross (ICRC) and some United Nations (UN) agencies have invested in total
quality management (TQM), including effectiveness related to achieving the
1082 humanitarian objective. This often results in logistics and other support services not
having adequate funding for strategic preparedness, and investing in infrastructure,
such as information systems, is discouraged. When the latter is the case, the critical
reason is often not unwillingness on the part of the humanitarian agencies, but one of
feasibility and limited understanding from the donor community. Donors give money
Downloaded by UNIVERSITAET OSNABRUCK At 22:05 30 January 2016 (PT)

for key staff, physical assets and programmes in general, but they generally fail to
recognise the impact of poor logistic preparedness, including investment in
infrastructure for the mid and long term.
Once an organisational environment exists in which performance is measured,
knowledge is built and retained, systematic and measurable improvements occur
rapidly, and communities share and leverage their capacities: logistics managers must
take their story to all stakeholders. The logistics community in the aid sector must
exhibit to donors and the public that timeliness and cost-effectiveness of relief delivery
is improving over time. Similarly, agencies should use communications strategies that
highlight success stories (Thomas and Kopczak, 2005).

Humanitarian response
The Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
noted (HPG Briefing Note, 2005) that the international humanitarian community faces
an ever-growing range of complex crises and changing threats, from the challenges of
protracted conflict (Darfur) and pandemics both old (HIV/AIDS) and new lifestyle ones
(diabetes) to sudden and devastating natural disasters (the Indian Ocean Tsunami and
the Pakistan Earthquake). The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Assistance (OCHA) compiles figures based on its consolidated appeals procedure
(CAP) the latest of which was published in Humanitarian Appeal 2007: Mid-Year
Review which showed that appeal funding as of June 2007 was incrementally better
than at previous mid-year reviews. Overall funding stood at USD 1.9 billion, or 43 per
cent of requirements. The USD 2.5 billion still required at that stage amounts to only a
few cents for every one hundred dollars of national income among the largest
economies.
USD15.5 billion was promised in commitments made by donors to CAP appeals
between 2000 and 2005 (OCHA online). This represents a huge business and excludes
donations made to the UN outside the aegis of CAP and to NGOs throughout the world.
In the commercial sector to succeed in today’s hypercompetitive environment, supply
chain management is a prominent activity used effectively for maximising competitive
advantage. It is said than in the humanitarian model up to 40 per cent of the total
programme cost can be spent on logistics. In the commercial sector, however, logistics
rarely exceeds 15 per cent of the total operational costs in fact, in a recent ASLOG
survey in Europe the figure over 160 European companies averaged 9.9 per cent of the
total operational cost.
In a briefing paper of the Good Humanitarian Donorship and the Inter-Agency
Standing Committee (2007), the Feinstein International Centre stated that between 2000
 and 2006 the annual amount raised globally for humanitarian aid approached USD 7 Advocacy to
billion. The difference between the emergency response supply chain costs and the promote logistics
normative state supply chain costs is between 20 and 25 per cent of the total. If the total
cost is USD 7 billion then the difference is between USD 1.4 and USD 1.75 billion per
year. Even a small reduction in logistics costs, or narrowing of this gap between
emergency operations and normative state would yield large savings.
Humanitarian logistics is essential to aid relief for several reasons. It is:
1083
. crucial to the effectiveness and speed of response for major humanitarian
programmes – it does not matter how good a programme is, without the logistics
support to deliver it to the right place at the right time it will fail;
. with procurement and transport included in its function, logistics can be one of
Downloaded by UNIVERSITAET OSNABRUCK At 22:05 30 January 2016 (PT)

the most expensive and critical part of the relief effort;

. often the only repository of data that can be analysed to provide post-event
learning; and
. humanitarian logistics activities could be undertaken by armed forces or private
sector organisations with resilient and supportive supply chains threatening the
humanitarian aid and relief sector as needed. The military have the capability
but their support is conditional, and if conditions are met, as efficient and
welcome as private sector logistics support.

Definition of humanitarian logistics

Humanitarian logistics is inexorably judged by the general perception of the
effectiveness of the response to an emergency. The very definition of ‘‘humanitarian
logistics’’ is mutable. The UN World Food Programme (WFP), the Lead Agency and
Agency of Last Resort for the Logistics Cluster defines logistics as that range of
activities which includes preparedness, planning, procurement, transport,
warehousing, tracking and tracing, and customs clearance. Another definition
provided by Van Wassenhove (2006) defines ‘‘humanitarian logistics as the process and
systems involved in mobilising people, resources, skills and knowledge to help
vulnerable people affected by disaster’’.

Private sector practices and humanitarian organisations’ attitudes

Fifteen years ago Christopher (1992) edited a book on the strategic issues of logistics
and in its preface he quotes Peter Drucker and his pioneering distribution article
entitled ‘‘The economy’s dark continent’’ which he wrote in 1962. Druker argued that
management knew and understood little of the opportunities that existed for profit
leverage through logistics. Specifically he said:
Physical distribution is today’s frontier in business. It is the one area where managerial
results of great magnitude can be achieved. And it is still a largely unexplored territory’.
Christopher then argued that with the concept of integrated distribution, which some
organisations adopted with great rewards, brought about an enlarged definition of its
scope. The mission of logistics management is to plan and co-ordinate all those
activities necessary to achieve desired levels of service and quality. The scope of
logistics spans the organisation, from the management of raw materials through to
delivery of the final product. However, in addition of those operational aspects there is
a strategic dimension which is of greater importance to the achievement of competitive
 MRN advantage. These conclusions were reached 45 years ago and 15 years ago from Ducker
32,11 and Christopher, respectively. However, the humanitarian sector is still the ‘‘Dark
Continent’’ and is yet to understand the importance of logistics improvements and the
associated strategic role of logistics.
The paradigm has changed. No longer do organisations strive to provide services
and commodities based on their supply, they seek to customise these services to their
perceived demand; no longer do organisations keep inventory, they seek to hold
1084 information of customer requirements; they have shifted from functions to processes,
from transactions to relationships (Mangan and Christopher, 2005); they do not have
the luxury of having a supply chain which is lethargic and unresponsive. To do their
job effectively they need to be agile, responsive and resilient.
Performance measures abound, value added is the focus of private sector supply
Downloaded by UNIVERSITAET OSNABRUCK At 22:05 30 January 2016 (PT)

chains. It has been said that no longer do organisations compete but their supply chains
which are composed of customers and suppliers whom in turn share other supply chains.
The humanitarian sector still generally operates on vertical principles, large stocks and
transactions. Logistics per se is not part of the mandate of humanitarian organisations
and that is perhaps one of the reasons why it is poorly valued.
In the private sector the efficient use of supply chain principles provide competitive
advantage. In the humanitarian sector the efficient use of supply chain principles
provides improvements in humanitarian response, since logistics is generally
perceived as a means to an end. Though some have recognised its importance in
providing cost-effective aid in reality, logistics continues to be a back room activity and
is consistently viewed as ‘‘the things that happen’’ between supply and demand.

Means of advocacy
Logisticians at every level need to engage their peers and their managers to underline the
importance of logistics to the overall task at hand. Logisticians should systematically
provide their management, donors and other stakeholders with the following data:
. sound planning based on relevant and up-to-date beneficiary needs assessments.
These assessments should reflect beneficiaries’ real needs as opposed to third
parties’ perceived needs’. This is not to suggest that third parties should not be
consulted. On the contrary, they must be in order to retain quality;
. meaningful and accurate metrics which measure the performance of the logistics
organisation and its response to disaster relief; and
. clearly reported deficiencies in the prevailing situation: in process; organisation;
staffing levels; and the capabilities of staff required to do the job.
Planning, preparedness, upscale when an emergency arises, sustaining the momentum
and moving towards reconstruction and development and downscaling of systems and
resources are activities well known but not effectively practiced. This is because the
strategic oversight is often left in the hands of those managers who have limited
understanding of logistics and its strategic role in humanitarian relief.

Human resource requirements

In the Indian Ocean Tsunami response, the vast majority of people with logistics
responsibilities did not have training in logistics. The trend towards the
‘‘professionalisation’’ of logistics has been slow to take hold in the humanitarian world, as
field experience is often considered more valuable than formal training in logistics.
 One of the key findings of a survey of 300 international humanitarian organisations Advocacy to
carried out by the Fritz Institute, Erasmus University and APICs (2005), carried out at promote logistics
headquarters and field levels revealed that 88 per cent of these organisations had to
relocate their most experienced logisticians from other assignments, such as Darfur, to
staff the tsunami relief efforts. Adequate identification, recruitment and training would
bring about a marked improvement of this situation.
In response to the lack of appropriate training in field logisticians, who are trained 1085
as they go, the Fritz Institute, in association with the Chartered Institute of Logistics
and Transport (UK) and others have introduced a Certification in Humanitarian
Logistics (CHL). The CHL programme was created by a multi-agency Advisory
Committee to enable humanitarian organisations around the world to strengthen
humanitarian assistance through professional training. CHL’s focus is to teach the base
Downloaded by UNIVERSITAET OSNABRUCK At 22:05 30 January 2016 (PT)

principles of logistics and supply chain operations in the humanitarian context in order
to increase the proficiency and expertise of humanitarian logisticians. RedR UK and
RedR Australia have developed respected Logistics Training Courses. The Red Cross
and Red Crescent Movements have similarly good, practical courses that encompass
field craft, personal management and field logistics. The University of Lugarno’s
Annual Summer School has been designed to bring together those interested and
active in humanitarian logistics.
Mangan and Christopher (2005) discussed the virtues of the logistician in the future
as logistics competences do not develop as rapidly as the business environment do.
Research output from a study conducted with academics, management developers,
students and corporate users of these services concluded that the following
competences are relevant for the logistics manager of the future (Table I).
Humanitarian logistics requires additional skill-sets and personal characteristics.
CILT UK and the Humanitarian & Emergency Logistics Professionals (HELP) obtained
job descriptions from humanitarian agencies, to provide a first basis for analysis. The
study, which is ongoing, has incorporated logistics requirements for both emergency
operations and support to development programmes. It reveals that most of these job
descriptions included knowledge areas such as warehousing, fleet operations and
inventory management. Some also included other supply chain functions: procurement,
purchasing and customs clearance. Others included responsibilities outside the supply
chain: security, recruitment, IT & telecommunications, asset management, Indeed the

Knowledge areas Finance

General IT
Logistics/SCM specific Management/strategy
Operations/SCM
Focus on processes/flows
Legal, security and international trade
Multimodal logistics
Logistics in emerging markets
Competencies/skills Analytical
Interpersonal
Leadership
Change management Table I.
Project management Competencies relevant
for logistics managers
Source: Mangan and Christopher, 2005 of the future
 MRN most surprising (and worrying) aspect of this initial study is that core logistics
competencies are not listed amongst the skills most often required. When looking at one
32,11 core logistics competency ‘‘procurement’’, it is found that this is required in 60 per cent of
the job descriptions reviewed to date, but ‘‘asset management’’ and ‘‘training’’ are
required more often than any other capability. Furthermore, specific competences fail to
be mentioned in the job description such as leadership, project management, analytical
and resilient (Figure 1).
1086
Assessment and planning
Assessment is a vital tool in planning for relief activities. Simply put, a good
assessment template provides the data which enables organisations to ensure that the
right product reaches the right beneficiaries at the right time. At the time of the
Downloaded by UNIVERSITAET OSNABRUCK At 22:05 30 January 2016 (PT)

tsunami, needs assessments were not as objective, strong or sophisticated as they

could be. Individual agencies often assessed needs on their own, in an uncoordinated
manner (Benn, 2004). While 72 per cent of the humanitarian organisations who
responded to the Indian Ocean tsunami had an assessment process which enabled
them to plan for relief in the tsunami region, 62 per cent of them stated that their plans
failed to meet needs. Eighty-eight per cent of the assessment team members were
internationals and 38 per cent of organisations had assessment teams from the affected
areas. Only 58 per cent of organisations used logisticians in their assessment teams a
fact that undoubtedly contributed to failure to anticipate some of the logistics
bottlenecks that were experienced (The Fritz Institute, 2005).
The United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC) has evolved in recent years.
Having lost many of its logistics coordination functions to the Logistics Cluster, an inter-
agency Humanitarian Common Service, it is now mandated to provide Logistics
Information Management support and services (UNJLC web site). This involves
providing an information platform for the gathering, collating, analysis and

Figure 1.
Required competencies
for humanitarian
logisticians
 dissemination of logistics information as well as commodity tracking and prioritisation Advocacy to
services. Currently, UNJLC is undertaking detailed work in the area of harmonising and
rationalising assessment templates.
promote logistics
Logistics and information management are immutable but the humanitarian sector
as a whole has not made that connection yet. WFP, as Lead Agency for the Logistics
Cluster, enabled the collection, analysis and dissemination of information in the recent
Pakistan Cyclone through secondments from UNJLC which had specialists in GIS and
superior abilities in information technology (IT) and analysis. 1087

Reliance on technology
A little over one-quarter (26 per cent) of the humanitarian organisations involved in the
tsunami relief had access to any ‘‘track and trace’’ software (The Fritz Institute, 2005).
Downloaded by UNIVERSITAET OSNABRUCK At 22:05 30 January 2016 (PT)

The inability of IT staff at headquarters to understand the imperatives of the field, the
primacy of financial managers in decision making about software used in an
organisation, and the need to keep networks secure are the usual reasons humanitarian
logisticians give for the slow evolution of IT solutions. The lack of recognition of
humanitarian logistics by donors, who consider it merely as an indirect cost, is a major
problem. In the main, donors do not fund logistics infrastructure.
In partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies (IFRC) the Fritz Institute developed Humanitarian Logistics Software (HLS).
Piloted in 2004, HLS was effective in increasing relief supply efficiency: comparing data
from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami to data from the 2006 Jakarta earthquake and
tsunami, supply chain set-up times are said to have decreased from 18 days to three
days, while the cost to deliver aid per family reduced from USD800 to USD142. In 2007
the Fritz Institute released HELIOS, a ground breaking next-generation software.
World Vision International, the largest emergency relief NGO, is currently piloting
HELIOS to manage its aid efforts in Somalia a well as in Zambia, and plans to test it
also in Uganda, Ghana and South Sudan. Oxfam GB, after undertaking a
comprehensive internal review of its technology needs worldwide, has also chosen to
carry out a pilot implementation of HELIOS in Africa and South East Asia.

Limited collaboration and coordination

Collaboration and coordination has improved since the tsunami response in 2004, the
subsequent recovery and rehabilitation programme, the implementation of the findings
of the Humanitarian Response Review (HRR) in 2005 and the introduction of the cluster
concept. The very introduction of the clusters at field and headquarters level has
brought about closer coordination and collaboration between UN agencies themselves,
between UN agencies and NGOs, and between NGOs.
The HRR, is still seen by many as a creature of the UN. The lack of significant NGO
participation in the cluster process as cluster leads some find disturbing. Cooperation
between organisations in a meaningful way exists and is increasing, but without the
substantial by-in of a larger number of NGOs and inter-government organisations the
efficacy of the cluster approach will be limited.
Walker and Pepper (2007) argue that it is time for a greater diversity of
humanitarian actors to act with more coherence and ‘‘for individual agencies to trump
agency growth with contribution to the common good’’. His comments were not
specifically intended for humanitarian logistics, but they are particularly apposite.
Similarly, Von Oelreich (2007) suggests that it is time for NGOs, some of whom are
bigger than UN agencies, to take up the challenge and more clearly articulate their
 MRN position: how to relate to other humanitarian actors, the UN as well as fellow NGOs and
32,11 the IFRC/ICRC. Such collaboration would enable rationalisation and harmonisation.
A major challenge to more meaningful general collaboration is addressed in
Donini’s (2007) closing address to the International Council of Voluntary Agencies
(ICVA) Conference. He makes the point that the UN is a political organisation which
tries to articulate a humanitarian discourse that is heavily influenced by what happens
1088 in the UN Security Council. Humanitarian action, he points out, functions on the basis
of absolutes derived from international humanitarian law and other key doctrines. The
dilemma is finding a way for the culture of the UN Security Council and the political
affairs people in the UN to be aligned with a loose group of people and organisations
that have broader, higher level values that guide their work.
Downloaded by UNIVERSITAET OSNABRUCK At 22:05 30 January 2016 (PT)

Way forward
It is imperative that, for humanitarian logistics to adequately serve the delivery of aid,
donors and the humanitarian aid organisations at large must recognise the role that
logistics plays in the delivery of programmes large and small, and the need for
humanitarian logistics to be adequately resourced in terms of trained and capable staff,
adequate information management systems and logistics infrastructure.
Advocacy to promote the role of logistics in the delivery of humanitarian aid of any
kind is paramount to the success of improving the effectiveness, quality and ability of
the humanitarian world to meet the challenges of ever increasing demands being put
upon them. Greater collaboration leading to rationalisation and harmonisation of non-
food item inventories and logistics infrastructure would positively impact the speed,
quality and the consistency of humanitarian response. Let us not keep humanitarian
logistics as Druker’s ‘‘Dark Continent’’ and acknowledge the value logistics has and the
potential benefits from bringing humanitarian logistics out into the light for an
improved humanitarian relief response.
Humanitarian logisticians and those who depend upon their skills should not
squander the unique opportunity the experience of these events has presented to
advocate the importance of logistics in the delivery of humanitarian aid. The
dissemination of topics such as the role of logistics in humanitarian aid may assist in a
small way to contribute in raising the profile of logistics.

References
Benn, H. (2004), Reform of the International Humanitarian System, Speech to the ODI, available
at: www.dfid.gov.uk/news/files/Speeches/bennaidsystemreform.asp
Christopher, M. (1992), Logistics, The Strategic Issues, Chapman and Hall, London.
Donini, A. (2007), ‘‘How compatible are UN coherence and humanitarian partnership?’’,
closing address, ICVA Conference, February, available at: http://
ochaonline.un.org/FundingFinance/ConsolidatedAppealsProcess; www.ciltuk.org.uk/pages/
humanitarian; www.goodhumanitariandonorship.org
(The) Fritz Institute (2005), ‘‘Logistics and the effective delivery of humanitarian relief’’, available
at: www.fritzinstitute.org/PDFs/Programs/TsunamiLogistics0605.pdf
(The) Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) Briefing Note (2005), ‘‘The currency of humanitarian
reform’’, November.
Mangan, J. and Christopher, M. (2005), ‘‘Developing the supply chain manager of the future’’,
International Journal of Logistics Management, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 178-91.
 Thomas, A. and Kopczak. (2005), ‘‘From logistics to supply chain management’’, Journal of Advocacy to
Metrics and Performance Measurement, UNJLC web site available at: www.unjlc.org/
about/ promote logistics
Van Wassenhove, L.N. (2006), ‘‘Blackett memorial lecture. ‘Humanitarian aid logistics: supply
chain management in high gear’’’, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol. 57,
pp. 475-89.
Von Oelreich, E. (2007), ‘‘Co-opted by the UN? Time for NGOs to take up the challenge’’,
Humanitarian Practice Network, November, available at: http://blogs.odi.org.uk/blogs/ 1089
exchange/archive/2006/12/02/1322.aspx
Walker, P. and Pepper, K. (2007), ‘‘Follow the money’’, A background paper for the meeting of the
Good Humanitarian Donorship and Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 20 July, Geneva.
Downloaded by UNIVERSITAET OSNABRUCK At 22:05 30 January 2016 (PT)

Further reading
Hyder, M. (2007), ‘‘Humanitarianism and the Muslim world’’, Journal of Humanitarian Assistance,
22 August, available at: http://jha.ac/2007/08/22/humanitarianism-and-the-muslim-world/
Thomas, A. and Fritz, L. (2006), ‘‘Disaster relief inc’’, Harvard Business Review, November.
Walker, P. (2005), ‘‘The future of humanitarian action’’, briefing paper, Feinstein International
Centre, Tufts University, Medford, MA, September.

About the authors

Michael C. Whiting is a Visiting Lecturer in Humanitarian Logistics at Cranfield University, an
International Humanitarian Logistics Consultant, member of the Cardiff and Cranfield
Humanitarian Logistics Initiative and the Steering Committee for the Chartered Institute of
Logistics Humanitarian & Emergency Logistics Professionals Forum. During the Indian Ocean
Tsunami, he was an Air Operations Coordinator and then Head of Office of UNJLC in Banda
Aceh. Michael C. Whiting was also the UN Liaison Officer to FEMA during the response to
Hurricane Katrina and was seconded to the earthquake in Yogyakarta, Indonesia where he
helped to establish the UN Logistics Cluster. Michael C. Whiting has over 45 years global supply
chain and logistics experience gained across a wide range of culturally diverse industrial,
commercial and institutional sectors and he has had numerous national and international
speaking engagements. Michael C. Whiting is the corresponding author and can be contacted at:
Michael4335@aol.com
Beatriz E. Ayala-Öström is a Freelance Procurement and Supply Chain Management
Consultant and a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield University. She is a member of the technical panel
for the GAVI Alliance and a Global Fund Support member of the Technical Review Panel. Beatriz
E. Ayala-O€ str€om is also a Tutor for the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport UK. In the
course of her work she has consulted widely in health and humanitarian logistics with the World
Bank, UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA, DFID, SIDA, USAID and with international NGOs and
Government Ministries. She has worked in Latin America, North America, the Balkans, Africa,
Asia and the South Pacific. Beatriz E. Ayala-O € str€om is a passionate advocator on logistics
investment for performance improvement.

To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: reprints@emeraldinsight.com

Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints
 This article has been cited by:

1. Gaurav Kabra, A. Ramesh, Kaur Arshinder. 2015. Identification and prioritization of coordination barriers
in humanitarian supply chain management. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 13, 128-138.
[CrossRef]
2. Cécile L'Hermitte, Marcus Bowles, Peter Tatham, Ben Brooks. 2015. An integrated approach to agility
in humanitarian logistics. Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management 5:2, 209-233.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
3. Alain Vaillancourt, Ira Haavisto. 2015. Country logistics performance and disaster impact. Disasters n/a-
n/a. [CrossRef]
4. Gaurav Kabra, A Ramesh. 2015. Analyzing drivers and barriers of coordination in humanitarian supply
chain management under fuzzy environment. Benchmarking: An International Journal 22:4, 559-587.
Downloaded by UNIVERSITAET OSNABRUCK At 22:05 30 January 2016 (PT)

[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

5. Nathan Kunz, Gerald Reiner, Stefan Gold. 2014. Investing in disaster management capabilities versus
pre-positioning inventory: A new approach to disaster preparedness. International Journal of Production
Economics 157, 261-272. [CrossRef]
6. Hella Abidi, Sander de Leeuw, Matthias Klumpp. 2014. Humanitarian supply chain performance
management: a systematic literature review. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal 19:5/6,
592-608. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
7. M. Ali Ülkü, Kathryn M. Bell, Stephanie Gray Wilson. 2014. Modeling the impact of donor behavior on
humanitarian aid operations. Annals of Operations Research . [CrossRef]
8. Dorit Bölsche, Matthias Klumpp, Hella Abidi. 2013. Specific competencies in humanitarian logistics
education. Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management 3:2, 99-128. [Abstract] [Full
Text] [PDF]
9. Graham Heaslip, Amir M. Sharif, Abrahim Althonayan. 2012. Employing a systems-based perspective to
the identification of inter-relationships within humanitarian logistics. International Journal of Production
Economics 139, 377-392. [CrossRef]
10. Robin E. Mays, Robert Racadio, Mary Kay GugertyCompeting Constraints: The Operational Mismatch
between Business Logistics and Humanitarian Effectiveness 132-137. [CrossRef]
11. Christopher Sandwell. 2011. A qualitative study exploring the challenges of humanitarian organisations.
Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management 1:2, 132-150. [Abstract] [Full Text]
[PDF]
12. Robert E. Overstreet, Dianne Hall, Joe B. Hanna, R. Kelly Rainer, Jr. 2011. Research in humanitarian
logistics. Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management 1:2, 114-131. [Abstract] [Full
Text] [PDF]
13. Julie E. Gould, Cathy Macharis, Hans-Dietrich Haasis. 2010. Emergence of security in supply chain
management literature. Journal of Transportation Security 3, 287-302. [CrossRef]
14. David H. TaylorThe Application of Value Chain Analysis for the Evaluation of Alternative Supply Chain
Strategies for the Provision of Humanitarian Aid to Africa 879-899. [CrossRef]
15. David H. TaylorThe Application of Value Chain Analysis for the Evaluation of Alternative Supply Chain
Strategies for the Provision of Humanitarian Aid to Africa 68-89. [CrossRef]
16. Elizabeth BarberMilitary Involvement in Humanitarian Supply Chains 123-146. [CrossRef]
17. Elizabeth BarberMilitary Involvement in Humanitarian Supply Chains 1371-1394. [CrossRef]