• Humanitarian Logistics

LSCM 601-2
 Learning Outcomes
• After completing this module, you are expected to:
– Understand what disaster is and how to manage it from
logistics view point
– Explain what humanitarian assistance or humanitarianism
is & applicable humanitarian principles
– Describe logistics operations from a humanitarian logistics
perspectives
– Try to develop humanitarian logistics and supply chain for
areas/people victimized
– Explain the importance of coordination in humanitarianism
 Outline
• Chapter One: Disaster Management
– Disasters and their categorizations
– Effects of Disasters
– Disaster Management: cycle,
conceptions, activities and actors
 Cont…
• Chapter Two: Humanitarianism Overview
– Humanitarianism and Humanitarian Assistance
– Humanitarian Principles
– Humanitarian Context
– Humanitarian Response to Disaster
and Humanitarian relief
 Cont…d
• Chapter Three: Humanitarian Logistics
– Conceptions, disaster and logistics
– The Role of Logistics Management
in Humanitarian Operations
– Comparisons of Commercial and
Humanitarian Logistics
– Flows in HL
– HL and Disaster Management Stages
– Challenges of Sustainable Operations in HL
 Cont…d
• Chapter Four: Humanitarian Supply Chain
– Concepts and evolution from Logistics to SC
– The Role of SCM in Humanitarianism
– Humanitarian SC and its Forms
– Comparisons of Humanitarian and Commercial SC
– Humanitarian SCM Fundamentals: Flows,
Design and Management Quality
– Planning Humanitarian SCs
– Challenges/Pressures of Humanitarian SC
 Cont…d
• Chapter Five: Humanitarian Chain
Supply Coordination
– Concepts and Significance
– Collaboration vs. Coordination
– The Need for Coordinated Functions
– Types and approaches for Coordination
– Relationship Management, Power and SC
Collaboration
– Actor-based Relationship Typology
– Developing SC Relationships
 Cont…d
• Chapter Six: Logistics Functions
in Humanitarian Context
– Procurement/Sourcing
– Warehousing
– Inventory Management
– Analyzing Transportation and Distribution in HL
– Record Keeping, controlling and
Monitoring Supplies
 Cont…d
• Chapter Seven: Measuring and
Improving Humanitarian Logistics
Performance
– Concepts and Importance
– Effective Performance Measurement System
– Measurement Models/Techniques
– Evaluation Criteria: theoretical and
empirical based
– Evaluation of Performance Measurement Systems
Chapter 1: Disaster Management
– Disasters and their categorizations
– Effects of Disasters
– Disaster Management: conceptions, cycle,
activities and actors
 Learning Outcome
• After completing this chapter, you will be
able to:
• Describe disaster and disaster
management
• Categorize disasters resulting in humanitarian
assistance
• Explain the consequences of disaster
 Introduction
• The number of disasters has increased worldwide
at present & hundreds of millions of people
affected each year (150,000 deaths and 200
million being affected by natural disasters)
• The need for the optimization of the logistics and
SCs that are charged with transforming public and
private donations into tangible aid
• The actual of resources
logistics
scale dedicated to in response
somewhat between to
provision 50%-80% of the total budget
disasters is
 Cont…d
• Emergency logistics & SCM on the spotlight
• A stronger need to coordinate logistics
resources of the public & private sectors to
avoid arbitrary resource allocation when
disaster occurs
• Effective coordination of efforts between relief
suppliers, logistics servers and demanders is
still of vital significance
 Disaster
• A disaster is “a serious disruption of the functioning of a
community or a society involving widespread human,
material, economic or environmental losses and impacts,
which exceeds the ability of the affected community or
society to cope using its own resources”.
• WHO defines a ‘disaster’ as an occurrence that cause damage,
destruction, ecological loss, human loss and suffering and
deterioration of health
• An instance which results in danger to human lives, properties
and health
• Has an increasing number affecting millions
• Most of the disaster is also striking without prediction and
lead to the limited time for mitigation’s preparation.
 Cont…
• A situation resulting from an environmental
phenomenon or human induced conflict that
produces stress, personal injury, physical
damage, economic disruption of great
magnitude.
• It causes intense negative impacts on people,
goods, services and/or the environment and
exceeds the effective community’s capability
to respond to it
 Cont…d
• An event becomes a disaster when the community's
capacity to cope up is overwhelmed and the status
quo becomes untenable
• Usually applied to a breakdown in the normal
functioning of a community that has a significant
adverse impact on people, their work, and their
environment, overwhelming local response capacity
• As a disruption that physically affects a system as a
whole and threatens its priorities and goals
Type
s
Cont…d
 Cont…d
• Each disaster type requires a specific response. The
relief operations deployed after a disaster vary
according to the location of the crisis, its intensity, its
nature, the stakeholders involved and many other
elements - affects the design and implementation of
humanitarian supply chains
• Why the thinking that each natural or man-made
disaster is unique and therefore calls for a
customized response is dangerous?
 Consideration when thinking about
nature of disasters
• There is a correlation between the type of disaster and its
impact on health- earth quakes and floods in terms of injuries
• Some of a disaster’s effects do not have an immediate impact
on public health, but pose a potential threat. E.g., population
displacements and environmental changes may increase the
risk of a spread in communicable diseases
• Immediate and potential health hazards in the aftermath of a
disaster seldom materialize simultaneously; they tend to
strike at different times, and with variable intensity within the
affected area. E.g., injuries and communicable diseases
 Cont…d

• After a disaster, the need for food, clothing, shelter,

and primary health care is rarely absolute- common
to recover quickly
• Wars and civil conflicts generate a particular set of
health problems and obstacles.
operational Overcoming them with many
requires social,
political, dealingethnic and geographical issues.
 Cont…d

• Disaster relief operations (natural disasters, requiring

foreign intervention) vs. continuous aid operations
• The core focus of disaster relief operations is to
design the transportation of first aid material, food,
equipment, and rescue personnel from supply points
to a large number of destination nodes
geographically scattered over the disaster region and
the evacuation and transfer of people affected by the
disaster to the health care centers safely and very
rapidly
 Main Effects of Disasters

• Includes loss of human lives, destruction

infrastructure
of ruptured socioeconomic
, conditions
• Communicabl diseases- disasters
eincrease the spreading.
may The risk of epidemic
outbreaks of communicable diseases is
proportional to the density and displacement
of the population, since these factors degrade
living conditions
 Cont…d
• Population Displacements
• When large population displacements take place,
whether spontaneous or organized, humanitarian
assistance becomes crucial—and urgent
• In situations in which large numbers of the
population flee their homes due to war or other
forms of violence, and the threat to life is imminent,
organized reactions are much less likely, since the
chief priority of the victims is to get away from the
danger as quickly as possible.
 Cont…d
• Food and nutrition
• Food shortages caused due to: distraction of
food stocks in the affected area and
disorganized distribution systems
• Water supply and Sewerage- their interruption
leads to severe health risks
• Mental health- anxiety, depression
• Damage to infrastructure
• Political influence and motivation
 Cont…
• The World Economic Forum estimates that in the
decades to come, epidemics will on average
cause an annual economic loss of 0.7% of global
GDP, equal in scale to the global economic loss
caused by climate change
• The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
pandemic constitutes a global healthcare crisis
with far-reaching consequences on livelihoods
and economies. The pandemic has had direct and
indirect impacts and their cascades on the supply
chain.
 Cont…
• From the public health perspective, first and
foremost, any pandemic impacts the lives of
people who have contracted the disease, and
secondarily, on the healthcare professionals
attending to these patients.
• Patients are though more than just individuals
who need medical attention: through their
positions and roles in society, they relate to, and
impact on, families, social networks, employers
and companies, and society and economy in
general.
 Cont…
• From the socioeconomic perspective, anyone
being ill implies a loss of knowledge, activities,
and income to their employer, both a loss of
income and a cost to the state, not to speak of
the concern the situation causes to the
patients themselves, as well as their family
and friends
 Cont…
• From the SC perspective, a first, direct impact is on
manufacturing plants that need to shut down if their
workforce is sick or quarantined. Not only individual
plants and production lines but also entire industries
have been affected by such events.
• The next, indirect effects were felt through the SC,
especially where alternative suppliers could not be
found, or worse, and were impacted simultaneously.
• Further indirect effects appeared quickly on the
horizon as a combination of export and travel bans,
and later due to large-scale unemployment through a
reduction of consumption.
 Cont…
• It has induced a variety of irrational buying
behavior, from panic buying to price speculation,
further contributing to the bullwhip effect.
• Overall, COVID-19 has created both supply and
demand uncertainties and capacity fluctuations,
causing gaps and disruptions in global SCs
• The current COVID-19 response goes to show
that neither industry, nor governments, was
adequately prepared for SC disruptions at such a
scale
 Disaster Management

• Disaster management is a process of effectively

preparing for and responding to disasters. It involves
strategically organizing resources to lessen the harm that
disasters cause. It also involves a systematic approach to
managing the responsibilities of disaster prevention,
preparedness, response, and recovery
• Disaster management involves examining and managing
causal factors. It requires assessing the extent to which a
community can withstand a disaster.
• Disaster management also involves analyzing exposure to
loss
 Cont…
• The organization and management of
resources
and responsibilities for dealing with
humanitarian aspects all of
emergencies,
particular preparedness, response and recovery
in
in order to lessen the impact of disasters
• The speed of humanitarian aid after a disaster
depends on the ability of logisticians to procure,
transport and receive supplies at the site of a
humanitarian relief effort.
 Cont…d
• Two phases need to be separately recognized
from humanitarian logistics and SCM
perspective: the initial days of ‘‘sudden onset
disaster’’ and second phase is the later phase
named as ‘‘post disaster’’
Disaster Management Cycle/Scope
• Related to time, disaster relief operations can
be separated into four phases:
– before a disaster strikes (preparation phase)
– shortly after (immediate response phase)
– in the aftermath (reconstruction phase) and
– afterwards (mitigation phase)
• Implications: the first two steps mainly focus
on strategic planning; the last stage requires
actual project management
 Cont…d
• During the preparedness phase, plans are set up in case a disaster
occurs (e.g. pre-planning of logistics operations, stockpiling of relief
items, establishing communication plans, and training of relief
personnel).
• The response phase requires an immediate dispatch of personnel,
equipment and other items to the disaster area.
• During the recovery phase, efforts are made to restore the affected
areas to their previous state by reconstructing houses and public
facilities.
• In the mitigation phase, measures to prevent hazards from turning
into disasters or to reduce their negative impacts are set (e.g.
strengthening of existing buildings, land-use planning, and
insurances).
• Strategic approach for disaster and emergency
assistance (Patrick Safran, 2003)
 Cont…d
• The primary objective of relief organizations is
to rehabilitate affected people, distribute food,
assistance in reconstruction of devastated
area to improve infrastructure
• The long-term phase of reconstruction is often
neglected- high demand for increasing
efficiency
 Cont…d

• Phases of Disaster Relief Operations (Kovács

and Spens, 2008, 2007)
 Cont…d
• Preparation: Although natural disasters
are difficult to predict, some regions are
prone to prepare for particular risks
• Implication: convincing donors who insist
that money is seen directly going to the
beneficiaries – financing of preparatory
measures
 Cont…d
• Immediate Response: Once a natural disaster strikes, the
emergency plans of regional actors are instigated.
• During and immediately after an emergency, disaster
management focuses on delivering help and
interventions that can save lives, safeguard health, and
protect buildings, animals, and community property.
• Implication: planned for but forced to operate in an
environment with a significantly destabilized structure
particularly when it is in a developing region where the
infrastructure is not in place from the very beginning
• Decisions are based on limited information
 Cont…
• Disaster relief addresses the immediate and short-term
needs of disaster-affected communities. It can include
evacuations, search and rescue missions, and
emergency medical assistance.
• Examples of disaster relief are:
– Setting up temporary shelters that provide a safe place to
sleep, food, and emotional support from trained personnel
– Delivering meals and water
– Distributing emergency supplies and necessities, such as
toiletries for hygiene and tarps, shovels, trash bags for
cleanup efforts
– Providing emergency health services, such as first aid for
injuries and prescription medication replacements
 Cont…d
• Reconstruction: For many disaster struck regions
funding is often focused on short-term relief and that
the long-term reconstruction phase is neglected
• Emergency management helps communities rebuild
their lives after trauma. This involves longer-term
efforts to restore:
– Housing
– Economies
– Infrastructure systems
– Individual and community health
 Cont…d
• Nikbakhsh & Farahani (2011) suggest an additional phase
prior to the first phase of preparation as indicated by Kovacs
& Spens (2007), which is called mitigation
 Cont…d
• This initial phase tries to prevent hazards from turning into
disasters or to reduce their destructive effects. It differs from
the other three phases in that it requires long-term planning
and investment, thus making it the most important and
effective phase against disaster effects
• Structural measures: technological advancement e.g. flood
levees, strengthening existing buildings, and strengthening
crucial links bridges in transportation networks in order to
mitigate the disaster effects
• Non-structural measures: legislation, land use planning, and
insurance
 Cont..d
• Since natural disasters are often unpredictable and difficult to
prevent, preparation becomes uncertain for all actors involved
in humanitarian aid
• Since donors typically prefer that their money go directly to
help victims and not to finance back-office operations-
planning and training neglected
• The of the logistics of relief operations,
establishing
preplanning communication plans, defining the
responsibilities of each participating relief
coordinating operations, and training relief personnel are of
organization,
equal importance and a necessity to be taken into
consideration in the preparation phase
Chapter Two: Humanitarianism
– Humanitarianism and Humanitarian Assistance
– Humanitarian Principles
– Humanitarian Context
– Humanitarian Response to Disaster and
Humanitarian relief
 Learning Outcomes
• Upon completing this chapter, you will be able
to:
• Describe what humanitarian assistance is
• Indicate the roles played by different actors in
humanitarian assistance
 Humanitarian Assistance
• Humanitarian Assistance refers to
actions designed and executed:
– To save lives
– Alleviate suffering and
– Maintain and Protect human dignity during
and in the aftermath of emergencies
 Humanitarianism and Humanitarian Principles
• For an action to be considered as humanitarian, there are four widely
accepted principles underlying: humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and
independence
• The principle of humanity means that humankind shall be treated
humanely in all circumstances by saving lives and alleviating suffering,
while ensuring respect for the individual
• It means preventing and alleviating human suffering, protecting life and
health and ensuring respect for human existence.
• It is to bring assistance to people in distress without discrimination. This
implies that human suffering should be relieved wherever found. It is the
very reason why humanitarian organizations are deployed.
• Keeping in mind that in order to relieve suffering, humanitarian assistance
brings scarce resources into societies affected by disaster and often
experiencing social change, where the process of change itself often
involves conflict.
 Cont…d
• Humanity ensures that victims of disasters are
provided with aid and assistance in order to
reduce their suffering, this is done irrespective
of their geographical location
 Impartiality

• Action is based solely on need

• Implication: relief should be provided without bias or
affiliation to a party in the conflict. On the basis of neutrality,
agencies may choose not to participate in local issues if there
is an eminent risk of getting trapped by political agendas.
• It means that humanitarian action makes no distinction
according to nationality, race, religion, social position or
political conviction.
• Impartiality in operations can be evaluated more precisely in
terms of non-discrimination between groups:
– proportionality in relation to need, and
– non-subjective recognition of needs as identified by the community.
 Cont…d
• Humanitarian endeavor aims simply to help
people – be they friend or foe – in proportion
to their need, giving priority to the most
urgent cases (the principle of proportionality).
Resources are therefore to be allocated
according to the principle that equal suffering
demands equal help.
 Cont…d
• Impartiality discourages discrimination, thus
ensuring that aid and assistance is given based
on the urgency of the need but not for
political reasons or nepotism.
 Neutrality
• Neutrality on the part of a humanitarian agent means
abstaining from participating in hostilities and at all times
refraining from involvement in controversies of a political,
racial, religious or ideological nature.
• Humanitarian action must not favor any side in an armed
conflict.
 Cont…d
• Neutrality ensures that humanitarian
organization do tak sides when
s
delivering e
aid not assistance. In essence,
and
when aid organizations intervene during a
crisis, they are expected not to form any kind
of affiliations or allegiance with any group in a
conflict.
 Cont…d
• The principle of neutrality imposes two obligations on neutral
parties: (i) maintaining a distance from the hostilities, that is
abstaining from actions that would help or hinder one party
or the other; and (ii) taking no part in political, racial, religious
or ideological controversy. Neutrality prohibits a humanitarian
organization such as the ICRC from condemning or supporting
either point of view in an ideological controversy, and forbids
it to ‘‘say on which side justice lies.
• Maintaining a neutral stance is perhaps the most challenging
and costly condition for agencies.
 Cont…d
• It takes sides only with the victims, and works actively and
pragmatically to alleviate their plight.’’ Neutrality is not a
value of itself, but a means of obtaining access to the victims
and of being able to help them on the ground.
• Only by strict conformity with the principle of neutrality can a
humanitarian organization acquire and maintain the trust of
all, and especially that of donors and of parties to a conflict.
• No conflict party would tolerate the presence of a
humanitarian organization if it believed that it was being used
as a Trojan horse to promote the political interests of the
other side.
 Cont…d
• Operational Independence: Humanitarian
action must be kept separate from political,
economic, military or other objectives.
• True humanitarian action must not become
mixed up with politics or military action, and
humanitarian agencies must be masters of
their own decisions. This is the only way to
ensure the credibility and effectiveness of
their work.
 Application Case
• Consider a situation where an inventory manager is
responsible for allocating aid between two camps hosting two
opposing parties in conflict. The first camp is only a short
travel distance from the warehouse and larger in number,
while the second camp is twice as far and the needs are
greater. He has received his total stock of aid for one week,
and the quantity does not cover the combined needs of the
two camps.
Question:
• Discuss the implication of applying each of the principles
individually
• How should the stocks need to be allocated?
 Objectives of Humanitarian Organizations

• The ultimate objective of humanitarian

logistics services could be seen as ensuring
continuity of services provided to people in
need which requires preventing stock outs
• Objectives towards donors and the public
• Objectives toward recipients
 Humanitarian Ideologies(HI)
• HI-aid agencies have different interpretations
of their own mandates within the parameters
or universal principles of
• Humanity,
• Neutrality, and
• Impartiality.
 HUMANITARIAN SPACE
• Space in which they could properly
conduct humanitarian work.
• An where humanitarians can work
without hindrance and follow the humanitarian
environment
principles of neutrality, impartiality and humanity’
• The principles stated above were not goals in
themselves, but rather a framework or a means to an
end.
• HS could be
• Physical
• Virtual
 Cont..d
• In the virtual sense, the humanitarian space
serves to protect humanitarian organizations
and ensure they remain ethical. While in the
physical sense, it denotes a zone free of strife.
 Physical sense of HS
• HS exists in a physical and a virtual sense, and
it is the goal of all humanitarians to live and
operate within it.
• HS represents a zone where civilians,
noncombatants and aid workers are protected
from violence and attack and can move and
operate freely.
• The primary concern is security and access.
 Factors causing difficulty in gaining
Physical space
• Absence of an effective government (e.g.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia).
• When the local government requests HA on
its terms.
• When the protagonists (those who play
central role) no longer believe that war has
limits and begin to manipulate and change the
HA for their own ends.
 Virtual sense of HS
• Here HS represents the
– Interaction between the different members
of the humanitarian ecosystem and
– How they create an environment where
their mandates can be executed.
 HS and Principle

Humanity

HS

Impartia
Neutrality
lity
 HS and Principles
• The triangle is equilateral and represent
relationship between the three principles and
HS.
• Maintaining its balance is what agencies strive
for.
• Any compromise on a principle would affect
the size and shape of the triangle, affecting
the outcome of the crisis and the agencies’
ability to operate
 Cont…d
• There is a general belief among humanitarian
actors that humanitarian space is decreasing,
in other words the principles of humanity,
neutrality and impartiality is not
being respected crisis. Theduring decline
humanitarian space are indicative in
increasing attack of aid workers, politicization
in
of aid, lack of respect for International the
Humanitarian Law (IHL) and the inability to
reach those in need of humanitarian aid
Actors in HO
 Application Case
• Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): In December 1999, conflict between
the Lendu and Hema ethnic groups in DRC displaced over 140,000 people.
OCHA and a group of NGOs mobilized to respond. Both ethnic groups
quickly accused the humanitarian community of choosing sides and
favouring the other ethnic group. In particular the Hema community
accused Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) of only treating the Lendu
community, which led to an attack on an MSF team. To convince people of
the humanitarian community’s neutrality, an OCHA negotiator met with
leaders from both communities and toured areas affected by violence. “We
demonstrated that there was equal need and equal treatment,” said
OCHA’s senior humanitarian adviser at the time. “We gave them reasons to
go back to their communities and explain why we were helping both sides.”
• Required:
• What do you recommend to OCHA alleviate the problem? Why?
 Obtain information on the Need for
Humanitarian Aid
• Needs assessment is how organizations identify and measure
the humanitarian needs of a disaster-affected community.
• It is the best way to answer the question: ‘What assistance do
disaster-affected communities need?’
• Needs assessments use various methods to collect and
analyze information which enable the organization to make
good decisions about how to allocate resources and gather
more resources to meet the needs of the disaster-affected
community.
 Cont…d
• Why might an organization carry out a needs assessment?
– To work out what the organization’s most important goals
are.
– To plan technical programmes.
– To prepare proposals for fundraising.
– To develop the right advocacy messages.
– To design later assessments with more detail.
• In emergencies, needs assessments make good decision-
making possible. They do this by putting information together
to build up a full picture of the needs of the disaster-affected
community. Needs assessments provide the evidence that
helps senior decision-makers in the field (such as project
managers and country directors) to make good decisions.
 Get the Basic Facts
• An assessment must include
information about three key elements:
– Where: locations where the impact has
been
greatest and/or is likely to be greatest.
– Who: groups
assistance and/or mostmost in need of
vulnerable.
– humanitarian
What:sectors that require action
immediate and/or ongoing
attention.
 Potential Challenges & Solutions
Challenge Example
Preparedness Lack of pre-crisis data that make
gathering secondary data difficult
Logistics Distance, insecurity, lack of
infrastructure
communications Language barriers or
telecommunications problems
Comparison Different approaches used by
different organizations
Capacity Lack of skilled or trained staff
Acceptance Local authorities or communities be Arrange a multi-stakeholder
unwilling to participate
Example Solution
Arranging meeting of key
stakeholders
Develop logistics plan that
minimizes the risks
Ensuring the team has the
needed language skills
Participate in any coordination
mechanisms
Train staff members
meeting to communicate its
importance
Chapter Three: Humanitarian Logistics

• Outline
– Conceptions, disaster and logistics
– The Role of Logistics Management
in Humanitarian Operations
– Comparisons of Commercial and
Humanitarian Logistics
– Flows in HL
– HL and Disaster Management Stages
– Challenges of Sustainable Operations in HL
 Cont…d
• After completing reading this chapter, you will
be able to:
– Describe humanitarian logistics
– Demonstrate the flows occurring in humanitarian
logistics
– Distinguish between disaster and logistics
– Link logistics with the stages in disaster management
cycle
– Distinguish between commercial and humanitarian
logistics
 Introduction
• According to Thomas and Kopczak (2005), the
term ‘humanitarian logistics’ is defined as
‘… the process of planning, implementing and
controlling the efficient, cost effective and
storage
flow of goods and materials, as well as related
information, from the point of origin to the point of
consumption for the purpose of alleviating the
suffering of vulnerable people.
Briefly, ‘‘for humanitarians, logistics is the processes
and systems involved in mobilizing people, resources,
skills and knowledge to help vulnerable people
affected by disaster’’.
 Cont…
• It seeks a prompt response, aiming to serve the
largest number of people, avoid shortages and
waste, organize various donations and, above all,
operate within a limited budget
• HL is a critical element of an effective disaster
relief process and is described as a special branch
of logistics with challenges such as demands
surge, uncertain supplies, critical time window in
face of infrastructure vulnerabilities and vast
scope and size of the operations
 Cont…
• HLM involves many functions including
preparedness, planning, procurement, transport,
warehousing, tracking, tracing, and customs
clearance from point of origin to point of
consumption. Humanitarian logistics can be
defined as “an umbrella term for a mix array of
operations”.
• HLM is also known as a process or system which
involves applying knowledge and skill to mobilize
resources and people with the purpose of helping
vulnerable and affected communities
 Cont…
• HL encompasses the process of mobilizing people,
resources, skills and knowledge to help the disaster’s
victim. In the humanitarian process, logistics is the
central of all the mobilization activity as it served as
the bridge between the disaster preparedness and
response, procurement and distribution and
headquarters and the field.
• It can be one of the most expensive parts in the relief
operation and the effectiveness of the operation is
always being monitored in order to improve the
operation and to minimize the operating cost with the
maximum of result’s operation.
 Cont…d
• Ensuring efficient and effective delivery in such a
way that the appropriate commodities and
people reach the victims of the disaster is vital
and requires that all the relationships among the
actors involved are managed through an
integrated approach
• HL operation cost is known to be approximately
25% higher than comparable business logistics
operation cost due to inherent uncertainty,
limited local use of technology, human resource
difficulties, and poor infrastructure
 Flows in HL
• Logistics refers to getting the rights goods to the right place
delivered to the right people at the right time. Several authors
have advocated that in the case of disaster relief operations,
more than 80% of the actions humanitarian organizations take
are related to logistics.
• Flows in HL encompasses the five B’s: boxes (products), bytes
(information), bucks (financial flows), bodies (manpower) and
brains (abilities and skills people have)
Goals per Flow
 Informatio
n
• Information is very limited at the beginning of
a disaster, even if there were good
assessments of the area prior to the calamity
(which is rarely the case).
• Early in a disaster, it is critical to understand
the impact on specific areas and the needs
surfacing at different levels. It is essential to
design and coordinate the response.
 Cont…
• Information is critical in designing a SC that
addresses the needs of the population (water,
food, medicines, shelter) and defining the means
to meet those needs (warehousing capacity,
airport or corridor access, transport capabilities,
telecommunications).
• Smooth and avoidance
duplication
coordination of of relies on
sharing,
effort knowing who will be involved in
information
the disaster response, in what capacity
 Funds
• The compelling images emanating from disaster
areas are critical to agency fund-raising efforts
and the allocation of emergency funds. However,
it is naïve to believe that this leads to an
equitable distribution on a needs basis.
• In fact, only crises that have great media
exposure are able to raise significant funds for an
immediate response. Compounding the challenge
is that the public is often quickly fatigued by
repeated appeals or distracted by new crises,
causing funds for a specific relief operation to dry
up earlier than expected.
 Cont…
• Funds that are not properly invested or dispersed can lead
to aid dependency and hamper the long-term recovery
prospects of the beneficiaries. Aid dependency means that
rehabilitation may never start and agencies can be trapped
in a self-perpetuating cycle with little chance of long-term
sustainable recovery.
• What is even more important in terms of disaster response
fund-raising is liquidity. Most of the pledged funds will take
days, weeks, perhaps even months or years to reach the
agencies at a time when they need to finance their
immediate operations with cash and meet financial
obligations to their supply chain partners.
 Cont…d
• Finding funds to support disaster preparedness is
difficult. Donations for a disaster are earmarked
for relief and not for training and investment in
preparedness strategies in between disasters.
• “It is easy to find resources to respond, it is hard
to find resources to be more ready to respond.”
• We must recognize that there are slow-onset and
sudden onset disasters. Slow-onset disasters are
easier to prepare for in advance since time
permits it.
 People
• Getting the right skill sets to disaster areas is
not an easy task either. First, these people
need to be available for deployment.
• People are also subject to burnout under high
physical and emotional demands, working
with limited resources in an intense
environment.
 Knowledge
• Every disaster is an opportunity for knowledge
transfer and capacity building.
• Specialized knowledge is required to make
quick decisions under high uncertainty when
designing a response. This is knowledge that
could be already present in the area from the
local emergency response teams, but also
knowledge that may need to be imported.
 Logistics
• A significant stumbling block to better
preparedness in the humanitarian sector has
been the failure to have logistics recognized as
an essential element of any relief operation. It
is argued that the response to most disasters
is comprised of 80 percent
(considering number logistics of
allocated, and skills required). activities,
funds
 Disaster and Logistics
• Disaster: “a serious disruption of the functioning of a
community or a society involving human,
material, economic or environmental losses and impacts,
widespread
which exceeds the ability of the affected community
or society to cope using its own resources”
(UNISDR)
• Causes: manmade and natural
• Predictability and speed of occurrence- sudden-onset and a
slow-onset
• Calamities, characterized by natural causes and sudden-onset
occurrences (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes);
• Destructive actions, characterized by man-made causes and
sudden-onset occurrences (e.g., terrorist attacks, coups d’état,
industrial accidents);
 Cont…d
• Plagues, characterized by natural causes and slow-onset
occurrence (e.g., famines, droughts, poverty);
• Crises, characterized by man-made causes and slow-onsets
occurrence (e.g., political and refugee crises).
• Calamities and destructive actions are disasters that demand
a higher logistics effort in terms of knowledge and cost
because sudden-onset occurrences require a very fast
response in devastated areas. The four categories may be
interlinked: a calamity (such as an earthquake) may cause
plagues (such as an epidemic disease) and crises (such as an
economic crisis). Thus, it is sometimes more appropriate to
talk about disasters instead of a single disaster.
 Cont…d
• Effective disaster management mainly comprises
effective preparedness and effective response to
disaster.
• Disaster preparedness contains five key elements,
which are to be exact: selecting and training
human resources, knowledge management,
preparation activities in operations and process
management, preparing financial resources, and
up streamed collaboration actions.
 Cont…d
• Disaster response heavily depends on preparedness
disaster well as on local politicalfor and
conditions. Furthermore,
geographicalmitigation activities as a pro-active
anticipation
as of possible catastrophes and rehabilitation
undertakings after completed disaster relief are surrounding
the core phases of disaster management.
• HL as the process of planning, implementing and controlling
the efficient, cost-effective flow and storage of goods,
materials and equipment as well as related information, from
point of origin to point of consumption for the purpose of
meeting the beneficiary’s requirements. Two major tasks are
allocated to logistics within the whole process of disaster
management.
 Cont…d
• Firstly, it is necessary to provide resources and equipment for
all operating units during the disaster management.
• Secondly, the provision and, if required, the recovery of
infrastructure components to ensure a smooth flow of
material in the area of operation should be guaranteed.
 Cont…d
• Ordinarily, disaster relief deals with calamities, destructive
actions, and plagues. Continuous aid work is mainly required
in the case of plagues and crises.
• Logistics is the most important element in any disaster relief
effort, and it is the one that makes the difference between a
successful and a failed operation. But it is also the most
expensive part of any disaster relief: it has been estimated
that logistics accounts for about 80% of the total costs in
disaster relief.
 Cont…d
• HL (emergency) normally focuses on the response phase of
disaster management aimed at search and rescue, sustaining
or saving life, and restoring self-sufficiency.
• Thus, proper investment in logistics in disaster relief provides
the main opportunity to develop and implement effective and
efficient use of resources in humanitarian operations.
• HL as a function encompasses a range of activities, including
preparedness, planning, procurement, transport,
warehousing, tracking and tracing, and customs clearance.’
 Cont…d
• humanitarian logistics during emergencies requires:
– delivery of appropriate supplies in good condition, when and where
they are needed
– a wide range of transport, often improvised at the local level
– limited, rapid, and specific deliveries from outside the area affected
– a system of prioritizing various relief inputs
– storing, staging, and moving bulk commodities
– moving people
– coordination and prioritization of the use of limited and shared
transport assets
– possible military involvement in logistics support (especially in cases of
civil conflict).
 Cont..d
• The main factors in the operating environment which shape
the response to humanitarian crises are:
– capacity of the infrastructure
– availability and quantity of transport assets in the country
– politics of the situation
– civil conflict in the area of operations
 Cont…d
• The structure and organization of HL is based on the nature of
the supply chain in question. Components of this chain
comprise 1) port of entry; 2) primary warehouse; 3) forward
warehouse; and 4) terminal storage point.
• A typical humanitarian logistics structure starts at the points
of origin, for example producing or donor countries, to one or
more ports of entry, which can be land, sea or airports, and
one or more primary warehouses (near the port of entry),
through to forward warehouses (for holding), and lastly to
terminal storage points from which the relief goods are
transferred to places of distribution to the beneficiaries
 Cont…d
• The HL and relief chain structure includes pre-disaster
procurement, stock pre-positioning, post-disaster
procurement and transportation. Consideration must be given
to the main issues in the humanitarian logistics operations,
which are:
• Local procurement is quick, but can cause price increases.
International procurement is slower and can also cause
destructive price reductions. In-kind donations can also cause
chaos and congestion.
• Pre-positioning stock quickens responsiveness but is costly in
terms of inventory costs.
• Transportation for the last mile has been reported to be
difficult, due to limited transportation resources, damaged
infrastructure and the large volumes that can be required.
 Cont…d
• Coordination can exist between relief agencies mainly in joint
decisions, common information systems and resource sharing.
Coordination relationships between relief agencies,
local/military and international agencies
and
agencies and private sectors have been studied. between
• Some of the methods for SC coordination are procurement
coordination, warehousing/inventory
coordination, transportation coordination and 3PL or 4PL
coordination
 Comparison of CL and HL
Factor Commercial Logistics HL
Purpose Economic Societal
Context Uninterrupted/business as Interrupted
usual
Perspective in time Time is money Time is life
Source of fund Owners/paying customers Donors
Perception about L More clear Lacks clarity
Timing & positioning of Process & systems involved
inventory in mobilizing P, R, S & K to
help people affected
Performance metrics Clear indicators Difficult to measure
Competition Competitive advantage No real competition
Capabilities Based on historical sales Work under high levels of
data uncertainty (dd, supplies
assessment)
 Challenges
• Assessment and planning problems, limited use
of technology, remote and rustic locations of
operation and lack of infrastructure
• Having to deal with unknown demand, short
delivery time, inexperienced logistics staff,
awkward media pressure, lack of funding,
insufficient equipment and technology, and
inappropriate political interference
• Harder barriers may be degraded infrastructure,
unreliable communication systems, road
blockages and various security issues
 Cont…
• These challenges have been divided into
four
major types: planning and assessment
challenges, operational challenges,
collaboration and standardization
challenges, and monitoring and control
challenges
Chapter Four: Humanitarian Supply
Chain
– Concepts and evolution from Logistics to SC
– The Role of SCM in Humanitarianism
– Humanitarian SC and its Forms
– Comparisons of Humanitarian and Commercial SC
– Humanitarian SCM Fundamentals: Flows, Design
and Management Quality
– Planning Humanitarian SCs
– Challenges/Pressures of Humanitarian SC
 Chapter Objectives

• After completing this chapter, you will be

expected to:
– distinguish between humanitarian logistics and
humanitarian supply chain
– compare and contrast between humanitarian and
business supply chains
– enumerate the common characteristics of
humanitarian supply chains
 Introduction
• From Logistics to SCM
• Logistics as an activity (timing and positioning of inventory/flow),
mobilizing resources, manpower, skills and knowledge
• Getting different actors to work together by sharing processes and
distribution channels requires a vision that goes beyond mere
logistics.
• It requires an integrated SCM approach to effectively coordinate
inter-agency performance, eliminate redundancies, and maximize
efficiencies.
• SCM as a function integrating complex global networks of design,
procurement, manufacturing, distribution and sale
• Resulted in outsourcing of logistics due to cost and scope
 Cont…d
• Globalization forced companies to think
outside of the box and pay attention to better
coordinate and integrate all activities
• With globalization and increased outsourcing,
the number of parties involved in bringing a
simple product to a final consumer had
significantly increased => SCM
 SCM
• The SCM view provides the opportunity to
optimize logistical performance at the inter-
organizational level
• Forces organizations to choose what
capabilities to invest in and develop internally,
and which activities to allocate for
development by suppliers
 Factors for the Emergence of the SCM
• The Information Revolution
• Information today is cheaper, more accessible, more
comprehensive and reliable, and easier to use for tracking the
movement of materials.
• How quickly information about disasters becomes available,
with on-site real-time broadcasting and reporting increasingly
being the norm=>high expectations for rapid response and
creates greater demand for advanced preparedness
• Greater Pressure for “Perfect Orders”
• humanitarian SCs expected to be more reactive (adaptable
and agile) to the changing and sudden (and often unexpected)
needs in the field=> inefficiencies and mistakes in SCs less
tolerated
 Cont…d
• New Forms of Inter-organizational Relationships
• Pressures to execute perfect orders forced self-
contained humanitarian agencies to break out of
their silos and reach out to build new strategic
relationships across sectors
• Able to identify process overlaps, gaps & non-value
adding redundancies
 Forms of Humanitarian SCM
• No single form
• Unlike most business SCs, the humanitarian aid SC is often unstable.
• Sometimes, the SC breaks down at the receiving end, but it may
also be unstable at its origin for two main reasons: politicized
donations by governments and the competitive nature of fund-
raising from private donors.
• Humanitarian aid is prone to political and military convenience of
both donor and recipient countries and to the demands of the
“donor industry”, and often lacks a coordinated plan.
• Humanitarian logistics again is characterized by large-scale
activities, irregular demand and unusual constraints in large-scale
emergencies
 Cont…d
• NGOs often compete with each other for
donations
• Donors more sympathetic to emergencies
• There is no clear humanitarian SC design, but
the most typical design described by (Richard.
O, & Richard G, 2006) is as follows
Cont…d
Cont…d
 Cont…d
• The type of supplies associated with material flows
can be grouped into four main categories: water
supply and sanitation, food and nutrition aid, shelter,
and health services.
• Information flows include the transmission and
tracking of orders, as well as the transmission of
reports from the humanitarian organizations to the
donors.
• Financial flows, on the other hand, represent
donations, credit terms and payment schedules
 Planned Approach to HSC
• Logistics (50%-80%) and SCM as important factors
in
humanitarian aid operations
• In a way NGOs are, in practice, logistics organizations
high-performance
• Only a handful of aidlogistics
agenciesandhaveSC operations
prioritized and that
the creation of
consequently, relief operations are not as and
effective
efficient as they could be; as a result, relief to beneficiaries is
delayed or reduced.
• Managers must also how their
appreciate are organizational those
distributors linked
processes and most importantly,
in customers;
of in essence
their it is
vital for organizations
with to appreciatesuppliers,
their position in SC
 Cont…d
• There is evidence of a frequent lack of planning in
humanitarian SCs, resulting in inefficiencies, e.g. overuse of
expensive and unsafe air charter, failure to pre-plan stocks,
congestion caused by unplanned deliveries and a lack of inter-
organizational collaboration for information systems
 Cont…d
• SCM success:
• a significant change the traditional arm’s
length, fromadversarial, -
customer/supplier
even
relationships of the past with a focus on co-operation
and trust and the recognition that, if properly
managed “the whole can be greater than the sum of
the parts”
 Logistics and SCM
• SCM as logistics taken across inter-organizational boundaries
• Managers must appreciate how their organizational processes are linked
in with those of their suppliers, distributors and customers
• “SCM encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved
in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all logistics management
activities.
• Importantly, it also includes coordination and collaboration with channel
partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third party service
providers, and customers.
• In essence, SCM integrates supply and demand management within and
across companies” (CSCMP, 2014).
 Cont…
• “Logistics management is that part of SCM
that plans, implements, and controls the
efficient, effective forward and reverses flow
and storage of goods, services and related
information between the point of origin and
the point of consumption in order to meet
customers' requirements” (CSCMP, 2014).
 HSCM
• Humanitarian supply chain management includes
activities
that are primarily directed towards promoting human welfare
 Humanitarian vs. Commercial SCs
• Commercial SCs are rewarded by the market if they perform well
• In HSCs, performance is hard to measure as demand and supply is
not directly regulated through price
• Mission: quick lifesaving (alleviating suffering) vs.
maximizing
revenues (profit motives)
• Amount of trade-offs=> higher for HSCs
• Demand in HSCs is very complex (less stable & less predictable)
– High demand uncertainty in location, time, type and
quantity
– Suddenly occurring demand =>shorter LTs
 Cont…d
• Operational conditions in HSCs are very difficult due to:
– Chaotic nature during post-disaster periods making resource
availability complicated
– Lack of resources (e.g. vehicles, equipment, food, water and medical
supplies) but also oversupply occurs, because of high uncertainty of
disasters.
– Disruptions in infrastructures (e.g. transportation and communication)
– Shortage of professional human resources
– Lack of security in the affected regions
• A single actor has not enough resources to respond effectively
to a major disaster. Hence different organizations share their
resources and cooperate during performing disaster response.
However, often missing coordination between organizations
hinders relief operations
 Cont…d
• Humanitarian organizations follow their ethical principles
(humanity, neutrality, and principles of impartiality), which
increases the complexity of disaster relief actions.
• A politicized environment often complicates to maintain a
humanitarian perspective to operations.
• There is no way to punish ineffective organizations, as the
final voice of the beneficiary is absent in the performance
appraisal. Affected people are not directly involved in the
evaluation process, whereas in a commercial supply chain
ineffective members pay for their inefficiencies (e.g. less
customers or profit).
Characteristics of HSCs and CSCs
Cont…d
Comparisons
 Cont…d
• Emergencies generated by natural disasters are unique; lives
are at stake and in contrast to the business sector the issue is
not to bring quality logistical service to consumers at the
lowest cost. Unlike in business, where traditionally logistical
demands have usually been predetermined, the humanitarian
supply chain is faced with a series of unknowns
• Inventory management humanitarian supply chains is
in affectedby incomplete or non-
information
unreliable, about lead times, demand
existent levels and locations.
• With respect to the configuration of the distribution network,
the number and location of distribution centers is usually not
known with certainty in the case of relief chains
 SCM Fundamentals: Flows and Design

• Types of Flows
 SC Design
• Businesses are driven by customers (demand), while
humanitarian organizations are mostly driven by donors
(supply). Beneficiaries (customers) have very little power. This
lack of customer pressure makes it harder for humanitarian
organizations to pursue their objectives
• There are three basic design pillars to a supply chain:
• Processes and Product Structures: e.g., Modularity
• Organizational Structures: e.g., who gets what information,
who decides on what, how people are evaluated and
rewarded
• Technologies e.g., information and communication
:
technologies
 Cont..d
• Key to a competitive SC is to extend the concern about cost
efficiency and speed further to include agility, adaptability,
and alignment – the three As.
• Agility is the ability to quickly respond to short-term changes
in demand or supply to handle external disruptions.
 Cont…d
• Adaptability is the ability to adjust the supply chain design to
meet the structural shifts in markets and modify supply
network strategies, products, and technologies
 Cont…d
• Alignment creates conditions for better performance and
requires exchanging information with all relevant partners
(vendors to consumers). It defines as well the responsibilities
of all stakeholders to create a sense of unity and identity
including aligned incentives.
 Challenges of HSC
• Operating in highly uncertain environments-
fairly
unpredictable (infrastructure and resource availability also)
• Procurement process, procedures are difficult to enforce as
integrity is lacking
• Tracking and tracing of shipments is typically done manually
using spreadsheets
• In most cases there are no central databases of history on
prices paid, transit times, or quantities purchased and
received.
• Humanitarian organizations rely heavily on the use of
volunteers to implement their humanitarian efforts
 Cont…d
• Assessment
– Banking system has collapsed, streets may have no name;
when, how many, where and what is needed? What
infrastructure is left for transport & coordination of
materials, people, information and money?
• Funding
– Donations tend to be linked to a specific disaster and there
is a marked lack of funding for strategic disaster
preparedness such as logistics systems
– Can lead to unwanted or inappropriate supplies
– Can lead to lack of funding for more long-term investments
needed to deploy resources more efficiently when needed
 Cont…d
• Coordination
– What must be coordinated? Of flows of materials, information and
money; within and between organizations; during and between
disasters
• Measurements
– Different types of measurements
• Evaluation studies versus logistics
• During vs. afterwards
• Short vs. long-term
• External vs. internal
– For what will the measurements be used?
• Evaluation to see ‘how well did we do’ as basis for future applications for funding
and as basis to politics/policies- ‘how well does it work’, ‘how much of the funding
reaches the beneficiaries’
• What is measured? Cost of lost sales vs. cost of lost lives