Humanitarian Logistics

1. A typical humanitarian supply chain is an interconnected system involving flow of funds, goods and data. The stakeholders of a humanitarian logistics consists of beneficiaries, donors, NGOs, media, host government etc to ensure the effective flow of information. The demand for humanitarian logistics is often unpredictable  in terms of timing, type, and size. Demands are estimated after they are needed, based on an assessment of disaster characteristics.

Inventory control is challenging due to high variations in lead times, demands and demand locations. The network configuration is challenging due to the nature unknowns (locations, type and size of events, politics, culture) and "last mile" considerations. Information is often unreliable, incomplete or non-existent. Lastly, the ultimate aim of a humanitarian logistics is to minimize the loss of life and alleviate suffering.

The diagram below shows the cycle of a typical humanitarian supply chain.

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1. Emergency preparedness in stage 1 is the knowledge and capacity developed by governments, recovery organizations, communities and individuals to anticipate, respond to and recover from the impact of potential, imminent or current hazard events, or emergency situations that call for a humanitarian response. It also consists of pre-positioning their resources. Prior disaster awareness and readiness, accurate and specific early warning, effective prioritization, plans and planning, unity of direction and whole of government response, and the launching of immediate operations to assist affected populations by the army when necessary are key factors.

1. Under stage 2, it consists of assessing on the needs and infrastructure. During this stage, organizations need to identify available resources and provide first phase of necessities such as medicines, water, food and shelter. Concept and operations planning play a critical role here.

1. Under stage 3, organizations will have to deploy their staff and equipments to the required locations. And they will start on sourcing and procuring on goods and services that are running low in the warehouse either locally or internationally.

1. Under stage 4, once the goods and services have been procured, organizations will arrange for air and sea transportation for the goods to be delivered to the affected country. In addition, international supplies offered from other countries, donations and pre-positioned cargo will also be transported.

1. During this stage 5, local humanitarian logisticians will do handling upon reception including inspection and repackaging. Authorities will also need to plan for the storage  and mode of transports of all the goods received into the warehouse and various transshipment points to prevent stolen or damage.

1. In stage 6, humanitarian will need to dispatch to the affected areas within the country. And maintain a safety stock in the field warehouse and temporary storage for emergency needs. Waste and over supply has to be carefully managed under this stage.

2. The first inefficiency identified is the lack of collaboration. It is very common that there are many organizations offering help at a disaster site, hence there is a presence of disparate actors. The individual organizations present have different interests, mission, capacity and expertise. Although, no single humanitarian organization has the capacity and funds to adequately respond to a crisis. They however, tend to work independently or with very little collaboration despite facing similar challenges.