13,607 research outputs found
Wakabi: on-demand ride service for rural Uganda
In Uganda, the majority of the population lives in rural villages that rely on last-mile distribution for goods such as vaccines, fresh water, trade goods, and other forms of humanitarian relief. Last-mile distribution refers to the last mile (or few miles) that goods must be transported in order to reach their final destination from a main delivery hub. Coordination is one of the primary issues that exist when trying to solve the last-mile problem. In this paper we present our solution to this problem: an SMSbased, on-demand ride-sharing service designed to empower the people of rural Uganda by helping organize the transport of both people and goods. Our application functions similarly to the popular ride-sharing app Uber or Lyft but does not require a smartphone to use. Users text a predefined number to request a ride, get paired with a nearby boda-boda driver (these motorcycle drivers currently offer ride-sharing services to rural Ugandans by word-of-mouth), and are transported to their destination. The service also allows users to specify trailer requirements in case they need to transport goods as well. By building Wakabi around the existing boda-boda system we are not only helping to coordinate last-mile distribution efforts, but are also improving the efficiency of the existing boda-boda drivers that provide transportation to rural Ugandans. Following the 20142015 academic year, Fulbright Scholar and business partner Ty Van Herweg will be responsible for both testing and deploying Wakabi in Uganda. We hope that our application will help boda-boda drivers better serve their riders, and provide businesses with an ideal and cost-effective last-mile distribution solution
Research Directions in Information Systems for Humanitarian Logistics
This article systematically reviews the literature on using IT (Information Technology) in humanitarian logistics focusing on disaster relief operations. We first discuss problems in humanitarian relief logistics. We then identify the stage and disaster type for each article as well as the articleâs research methodology and research contribution. Finally, we identify potential future research directions
Study on cash transfers for seed security in humanitarian settings
This study examines the barriers and opportunities for cash transfers to be used to address seed security in humanitarian situations. Cash, while not a new approach, has gained momentum in recent years, especially with the emergence of the Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP) and humanitarian organizationsâ commitments through the Grand Bargain.2 Historically, direct seed distribution (DSD) has dominated agricultural responses in emergencies. While effective in many situations, other modalities of addressing farmersâ needs have also proven to be effective, including seed and voucher fairs and, increasingly, cash transfer responses. The latter response typically provides farmers greater choices to make decisions about their seed needs and preferences. However, as with direct distribution and vouchers, cash can be a viable option but may not always be appropriate in every situation.
The quality of seed is of paramount importance in choosing a response and has been an ongoing (and often contentious and political) discussion for decades. The results of this study advocate for a multi- stakeholder perspective on the quality of seed, while offering farmers the most flexible and most appropriate response possible for their given situation. In some cases, this will be cash transfers, but certainly not in all cases. A range of options offers the best chance for a successful, responsive, and appropriate program.
The evidence base on outcomes from using cash for seed in humanitarian contexts is limited, however, reviewing a series of examples shows the breadth and range of options that are being explored. The cases from an array of organizations and countries including Iraq, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Madagascar, and Guatemala, show that understanding the context is key to the response analysis and the choice of modality. Organizational approaches and previous experience also played a role in the choice of modality. The evidence to date shows that cash, in addition to complementary programming such as technical or business training, offers promise for seed security interventions. In addition, initiatives to support both the demand and supply side of the market have proven to be effective.
Key findings include:
1. Market and needs assessments must include a seed component or SSSA to ensure a response designed to address the right problem, not the assumption. For markets, both informal and formal seed markets need to be included.
2. Good needs assessments, response analysis and program design help ensure participantsâ spending cash on what implementers anticipate they will.
3. Program participantsâ preferences on modalities are not consistently included in response analysis.
4. Mixed modalities (cash and vouchers, or cash and DSD) can broaden crop choices.
5. Quality screenings for seed are taking place; the quality of seed is important to organizations and project participants.
6. Cash for seed security interventions are limited, but growing in prevalence.
7. Providing cash plus complementary support is a promising practice for fostering seed security.
8. The nexus between relief and development is criticalâdesigning projects with a longer-term development view: cash can prepare the way for farmers to continue true market engagement post-relief, spur business development in subsequent seasons, and offer opportunities for financial inclusion.
9. Supporting supply side to bring quality seed markets âcloserâ to project participants should be considered along with demand-side interventions (cash, voucher and other).
10. Investment in preparedness provides a better foundation to implement impactful cash for seed security response.
The risks, mitigating actions, opportunities and enablers for cash and seed security response are also explored. The study concludes with actionable and practical recommendations for further advancing the evidence base, as well as implementation suggestions. Continuous collaboration of key stakeholders in seed systems is essential to advance the discussions and action on the way forward with cash and seed systems
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Buttressing Supply Chains against Floods in Asia for Humanitarian Relief and Economic Recovery
Floods are the most frequent category of disasters worldwide. Among all geographic regions, Asia has suffered the most. While there are several ongoing humanitarian efforts and initiatives, we believe there is a new opportunity to coordinate âlast mileâ humanitarian efforts in the event of a flood using micro-retailers. Because micro-retailers are the âlast mileâ nodes in traditional retail supply chains in many Asian countries, we propose the use of social enterprise to buttress these supply chains for distribution of essential goods by coordinating with micro-retailers before and after floods. We also present a stylized model to quantify the benefits of doing so
The Objectives and factors affecting Performance of last mile Relief Distribution in Post-Disaster operations: The case of India
© 2020 A and V Publications. All right reservedThe world has witnessed an increasing number of natural disasters in recent years affecting large populations. The logistical operations to deliver relief to these populations are complex requiring careful planning and execution especially during the Last Mile Relief Distribution (LMRD), the ultimate phase in these operations. LMRD is the phase where the disaster logistics chain directly connects with the affected communities and whose performance is affected by many factors. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of relevant factors on LMRD performance in the context of India, the most affected country in the world by natural disasters. The research was conducted interviews with International NGOs and Indian government, national, and international NGOs involved in disaster relief operations in the country to determine the factors affecting LMRD operations. The qualitative phase findings identified coordination as the most significant factor affecting LMRD operations performance in India and established an outline, which will be used as a planner of LMRD before decision-making process in India. This research identifies coordination as a major factor of LMRD operations in India. Its impact is evaluated through the development of a conceptual model, which provided empirical evidence of the magnitude of LMRD performance improvement by adopting new coordination policies. The research provides suggestions for new ways on how to achieve better coordination and implement these successfully in Indian LMRD operations.Peer reviewe
Becoming Rasuwa Relief: Practices of Multiple Engagement in Post-Earthquake Nepal
In this article, we reflect on the multiple nature of our engagements in the wake of the 7.8m earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25th 2015. Specifically, we trace the events, experiences, decisions, positions, and processes that constituted our work with a post-earthquake volunteer initiative we helped to form, called Rasuwa Relief. Using the concept of multiplicity (cf. Mol 2002), we consider the uncertain process by which Rasuwa Relief began to cohere, as a collective of diverse efforts, interventions, projects, and commitments, and how Rasuwa Relief was continually and multiply enacted through practices of engagement. As a collaborative effort that coordinated and consolidated many of our post-earthquake interventions over a period of two years, Rasuwa Relief was always in a state of becoming. This process of becoming, we suggest, indexed and informed the multiple ways that we participated and intervened in the aftermath of the earthquakeâas accidental humanitarians or ârelief workersâ, as early-career scholars, and as people attempting to balance diverse personal, academic, and ethical commitments within and beyond Nepal. Based on a reflexive analysis of these multiple engagements, we also present an embedded critique of âhumanitarian reasonâ (Fassin 2012), inclusive of our own decisions and actions, alongside a selfcritical analysis of the affective factors that shaped our own âneed to helpâ (Malkki 2015)
Relief network design problem (RNDP): A scoping review, challenges, and opportunities
The Relief Network Design Problem (RNDP) is particularly important in emergency management. Any uncertain factors caused by natural disasters, the equity measurement in network design, and the adequate analysis of relief behavior will affect the efficiency of the relief network. This paper provides a comprehensive basis to support this view. The scope of the review allowed for exploring all existing literature on RNDP, where screening for titles, abstracts, keywords, and main contents, a total of 629 relevant articles are preserved. To construct the review work, existing research perspectives on the Relief Logistics Network Design Problem (RLNDP) as well as the Relief Transport Network Design Problem (RTNDP) are addressed, and their research focus and main research approaches are discussed. The existing studies on RNDP seem to be reached a bottleneck on how to design a humanitarian relief network. Hence, this paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge by summarizing the literature in the field, identifying gaps, analyzing future challenges, and providing solutions for future research. Specifically, this review reveals that while a large number of studies have considered uncertainty in the network design, they have not considered it at both the management level and the residents' level. In addition, equity is often mentioned, but the definition of humanitarian equity is unclear, as most studies consider equity at the management level. In real disaster relief scenarios, people do not only wait for relief, but self-evacuation is also a main behavior in the relief process, yet there are few studies that consider it in the network design. This review also emphasizes the relief network design structure problem, and the interdependence and coupling of the relief infrastructure transport or logistics facility network with other networks, such as the electric network, energy network, etc., deserves to be focused. In summary, five valuable research highlights are proposed based on a review of the existing literature: (1) Explore uncertainties from both the government management and disaster victim perspectives and integrate them into network design approaches. (2) Define and consider relief equity from both the government management and disaster victim perspectives. (3) Analyze self-evacuation behavior in the emergency relief phase and explore how it affects RNDP. (4) Optimize the transfer point location and relief routing from the perspective of management and humanitarian equity. (5) Strengthen the resilience of disaster relief interdependent network
Effective medical surplus recovery
We analyze not-for-profit Medical Surplus Recovery Organizations (MSROs) that manage the recovery of surplus (unused or donated) medical products to fulfill the needs of underserved healthcare facilities in the developing world. Our work is inspired by an award-winning North American non-governmental organization (NGO) that matches the uncertain supply of medical surplus with the receiving partiesâ needs. In particular, this NGO adopts a recipient-driven resource allocation model, which grants recipients access to an inventory database, and each recipient selects products of limited availability to fill a container based on its preferences. We first develop a game theoretic model to investigate the effectiveness of this approach. This analysis suggests that the recipient-driven model may induce competition among recipients and lead to a loss in value provision through premature orders. Further, contrary to the common wisdom from traditional supply chains, full inventory visibility in our setting may accelerate premature orders and lead to loss of effectiveness. Accordingly, we identify operational mechanisms to help MSROs deal with this problem. These are: (i) appropriately selecting container capacities while limiting the inventory availability visible to recipients and increasing the acquisition volumes of supplies, (ii) eliminating recipient competition through exclusive single-recipient access to MSRO inventory, and (iii) focusing on learning recipient needs as opposed to providing them with supply information, and switching to a provider-driven resource allocation model. We use real data from the NGO by which the study was inspired and show that the proposed improvements can substantially increase the value provided to recipients
Outsourcing of humanitarian logistics to commercial logistics service providers: An empirical investigation
Purpose â The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the potential of outsourcing of humanitarian
logistics activities to commercial logistics service providers (LSPs) throughout the different disaster phases.
The authors identify incentives for initiating outsourcing of humanitarian logistics activities to commercial
logistics providers, humanitarian logistics activities to be outsourced and selection criteria for partners.
Design/methodology/approach â This study is based on empirical data collected by interviewing 12
practitioners from commercial LSPs and 12 practitioners from humanitarian organizations (HOs). A review of
related literature guided this research.
Findings â This research shows that incentives for initiating outsourcing engagements, partner selection
criteria and activities to be outsourced are changing throughout the different disaster phases. A number of
research propositions are presented.
Research limitations/implications â This research constitutes a first step towards the goal of a
comprehensive analysis of humanitarian logistics outsourcing throughout the different disaster phases. The
authors collected data from practitioners and large organizations based mainly in Europe and the USA.
Hence, insights from national and local organizations of other parts of the world are missing.
Practical implications â This research provides a deeper understanding of outsourcing of humanitarian
logistics activities. As the main implication for practice, the research suggests a strategic use of outsourcing
during the three disaster phases. The authors acknowledge that business objectives, risks, stakeholder
agendas and requirements, as well as costs play a vital and changing role for outsourcing decision-making
during the three disaster stages. The managerial implications arising from the research can provide support
to commercial LSPs and HOs that initiate or develop strategic outsourcing relationships.
Originality/value â This study covers the gap in the humanitarian literature related to context-specific
factors of outsourcing in humanitarian logistics by empirically investigating the phenomenon. This is one of
the first studies that empirically investigate the potential of outsourcing of humanitarian logistics activities
throughout the disaster phases
Outsourcing in humanitarian logistics â status quo and future directions
Purpose â Outsourcing of logistics has great importance in disaster relief. Aid agencies spend several billion
US dollars every year on logistics services. However, the concept of outsourcing has not been established
adequately in literature on humanitarian logistics, leading to a fragmented view of the practice. This paper
provides a holistic perspective of the concept by constructing a conceptual framework to analyze both practice
and research of outsourcing in humanitarian operations. Based on this analysis, we explore future trends and
identify research gaps.
Design/methodology/approach â The paper is based on a structured review of academic literature, a tworound
Delphi study with 31 experts from aid agencies and a complementary full-day focus group with twelve
experts from aid agencies and logistics service providers.
Findings â The paper systemizes the current practice of outsourcing in humanitarian logistics according to a
conceptual framework of five dimensions: subject, object, partner, design and context. In addition, it reveals ten
probable developments of the practice over the next years. Finally, it describes eight important research gaps
and presents a research agenda for the field.
Research limitations/implications â The literature review considered peer-reviewed academic papers.
Practitioner papers could provide additional insights into the practice. Moreover, the Delphi study focused on
the perspective of aid agencies. Capturing the views of logistics service providers in more detail would be a
valuable addition.
Originality/value â The paper establishes the academic basis for the important practice of outsourcing in
humanitarian logistics. It highlights essential research gaps and, thereby, opens up the field for future research
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