Exploring operational Issues in refugees' care and integration process: the case of "SPRAR" project organisations

Several crises in many countries of the world are causing large migratory fluxes towards the most developed countries. The importance of migrants’ reception, acceptance and integration is increasing. The last phase of migration process concerns migrants’ integration, i.e. the process that start with migrants being accepted in the hosting country and end with migrants being completely integrated, i.e. autonomous both from an economic and a social point of view. Since this integration process is being slow and difficult, this research has two main objectives. The first one is to explore all the operations conducted by the organisations involved in the migrants’ integration process; the second one is to investigate about all the organisational factors that may have an impact on the integration process, with the purpose of improving it. Improving the integration process means being able to deliver services that are adequate to satisfy the migrants’ needs and expectations. With this exploratory purpose, two case studies have been conducted, in which two organisations involved in delivering services for migrants’ integration were analysed. At the end of the case studies analysis, a final framework was developed. It was found that the most important factors affecting the migrants’ integration are related to organisational capabilities, practices related to services co-design and co-creation, cooperative networks with other organisations and contextual factors like the social context in which they operate. The theoretical background about cooperative networks and operational improvement programs was crucial in order to identify these organisational factors that affect migrants’ integration

A review of lean and agile management in humanitarian supply chains: analysing the pre-disaster and post-disaster phases and future directions

Disasters have quadrupled over the last two decades leading to unprecedented loss of life. The objective of disaster-focussed humanitarian supply chains (HSCs) is to ensure saving maximum lives with limited resources; despite severe uncertainties. Therefore, significant research has investigated lean and agile in HSCs; to effectively source and speedily deploy resources, with minimum wastage; in each disaster life-cycle phase. However, the literature and research findings are currently highly disjointed regarding how lean and agile principles may be aligned with different HSC activities in the disaster management lifecycle; and do not provide a collective understanding for practitioners and researchers. This paper reviews and organises the literature on HSCs in relation to lean and agile paradigms, focussing on the pre-disaster (mitigation and preparedness) and post-disaster (response and recovery) phases. Findings reveal, all phases benefit from both lean and agile, with agile benefitting the response phase most. The phases are inter-dependent and identifying optimum decoupling points for lean and agile principles are crucial. Majority research has focussed on individual or a couple of phases. Therefore, authors recommend research on integrating the functions of the different phases by employing lean and agile principles, to generate rapid response, economies of scale and cost minimisation

Sourcing in humanitarian logistics: local, regional, and global approaches

Sourcing and procurement of materials and services is a vital part of humanitarian logistics. Humanitarian organisations tend to combine local sourcing and international approaches, resulting in considerable complexity. This paper establishes a better understanding of the factors that influence sourcing decisions in humanitarian supply chains. 38 semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals involved in both developmental and emergency humanitarian responses. Findings show that the philosophy of a particular humanitarian organisation has a considerable effect on their sourcing strategy, in addition to more practical issues such as local availability of goods and services, and quality control

To Greener Pastures: An Action Research Study on the Environmental Sustainability of Humanitarian Supply Chains

Purpose: While humanitarian supply chains (HSCs) inherently contribute to social sustainability by alleviating the suffering of afflicted communities, their unintended adverse environmental impact has been overlooked hitherto. This paper draws upon contingency theory to synthesize green practices for HSCs, identify the contingency factors that impact on greening HSCs and explore how focal humanitarian organizations (HOs) can cope with such contingency factors. Design/methodology/approach: Deploying an action research methodology, two-and-a-half cycles of collaboration between researchers and a United Nations agency were completed. The first half-cycle developed a deductive greening framework, synthesizing extant green practices from the literature. In the second and third cycles, green practices were adopted/customized/developed reflecting organizational and contextual contingency factors. Action steps were implemented in the HSC for prophylactics, involving an operational mix of disaster relief and development programs. Findings: First, the study presents a greening framework that synthesizes extant green practices in a suitable form for HOs. Second, it identifies the contingency factors associated with greening HSCs regarding funding environment, stakeholders, field of activity and organizational management. Third, it outlines the mechanisms for coping with the contingency factors identified, inter alia, improving the visibility of headquarters over field operations, promoting collaboration and resource sharing with other HOs as well as among different implementing partners in each country, and working with suppliers for greener packaging. The study advances a set of actionable propositions for greening HSCs. Practical implications: Using an action research methodology, the study makes strong practical contributions. Humanitarian practitioners can adopt the greening framework and the lessons learnt from the implementation cycles presented in this study. Originality/value: This is one of the first empirical studies to integrate environmental sustainability and HSCs using an action research methodology

Streamlining humanitarian relief operations: the case of United Nations Peace Keeping Operations

This paper discusses supply chain and logistics issues that arise in the operations of the Peacekeeping base of the United Nations in Brindisi. First, a conceptual introduction of current lean-agile and risk debates in the supply chain literature is proposed, followed by a description of the operational activities of United Nations base at Brindisi. Then, the Peacekeeping operations are put in the context of the lean-agile debate, and possible logistics efficiency improvements are proposed

OUT OF STEP? AGRICULTURAL POLICY AND AFGHAN LIVELIHOODS

Agricultural and Food Policy,

Humanitarian aid logistics: a Cardiff University research perspective on cases, structures and prospects

Purpose: This paper provides a contextualised review of research in the area of humanitarian and emergency relief logistics, providing insights with particular emphasis on lessons learned. The paper tracks the evolution of research against the development of partner networks and key global events; information was collated and assimilated from cross-cutting themes such as disaster preparedness, emergency response structures and the transferability of commercial-world concepts and principles (such as sustainability) into volatile and fragile environments. It concludes by suggesting possible future challenges which could steer humanitarian response on the ground and will influence the path of academic research going forward. Design/methodology/approach: The paper provides a general review of work undertaken in the area of Humanitarian Logistics. Use is made of vignettes of case studies in order to provide focus to the discussion and to highlight key issues that emerged from the research reviewed. Findings: The findings show that there are several new areas of research which will need to be addressed in the humanitarian logistics arena. The discussion demonstrates that research into crisis response is arguably even more important today than it has been previously. Research therefore likely needs to be expanded considerably over the next decade and beyond. Originality/value: This paper contextualises and synthesises past research into humanitarian logistics responses, highlights key themes and suggests areas for further research

Sourcing in humanitarian logistics: local, regional, and global approaches

Sourcing and procurement of materials and services is a vital part of humanitarian logistics. Humanitarian organisations tend to combine local sourcing and international approaches, resulting in considerable complexity. This paper establishes a better understanding of the factors that influence sourcing decisions in humanitarian supply chains. 38 semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals involved in both developmental and emergency humanitarian responses. Findings show that the philosophy of a particular humanitarian organisation has a considerable effect on their sourcing strategy, in addition to more practical issues such as local availability of goods and services, and quality control

Enabling Disaster Relief Supply Chain Visibility (SCV) and Supply Chain Coordination (SCC)

In disaster relief–humanitarian logistics (DRHL), supply chain visibility (SCV) and supply chain coordination (SCC) remain crucial to supply chain performance, when demand and lead times are volatile. Many DRHL solutions based on operations research or other such models in the literature, rely on SCV and SCC. However, there is a paucity of literature on how to enable SCV and SCC immediately after disasters strike. This paper proposes decentralised, peer–to–peer (P2P) systems architecture (SA) that augments existing information systems and communications networks in use. This architecture has additional capabilities that enable a ‘low cost version’ of SCV and SCC. By identifying antecedents and characteristics of agile and quick response supply chain and introducing them into DRHL, we lay the framework for enabling SCV and SCC in DRHL. Based on this completed research on the systems architecture and framework, this paper outlines briefly, an implementable version of an artefact for such deployment