Pensar la acci?n colectiva en el contexto de la log?stica humanitaria: las lecciones del sismo de Pisco

In the last fifteen years, and increasingly every day, humanitarian logistics has awakened the interest of researches in the logistics and supply chain management (SCM) field. Some consider this is a new area to apply methods and management tools developed in the business area. Researches in humanitarian logistics tend to favor a technical approach, particularly in operational management (transport optimization, location of regional centers, etc.). Although this view is still valid regarding improvement in using scarce logistics resources, this must be associated to organizational methods that seek the best way to coordinate within humanitarian supply chains. The present article assumes this position upon the concept of collective strategy and how it was applied to the earthquake disaster in Pisco, Peru (August 15, 2007). The humanitarian aid was distributed among several disaster aid committees, but above all to the Instituto Nacional de Defensa Civil (Indeci), the state organization that supervised the whole system. Indeci?s management emphasized the importance of collective action to improve the humanitarian aid operation, but it also viewed the difficulties that resulted from this action.En los ?ltimos quince a?os, y cada vez m?s, la log?stica humanitaria ha despertado el inter?s de investigadores en el campo de la log?stica y el manejo de cadenas de abastecimiento (supply chain management, SCM en ingl?s). Algunos de ellos consideran que este es un campo novedoso de aplicaci?n de los m?todos y las herramientas de gesti?n desarrollados dentro de las empresas de negocios. La investigaci?n sobre log?stica humanitaria tiende con frecuencia a favorecer un enfoque t?cnico, particular-mente con respecto del management operacional (optimizaci?n del transporte, ubicaci?n de los centros regionales, etc?tera). Aunque este punto de vista sigue vigente en cuanto al mejoramiento del aprovechamiento de recursos log?sticos escasos, tiene que estar asociado a m?todos organizacionales que busquen la mejor manera de coordinar las cadenas humanitarias de abastecimiento. En este art?culo se adopta este punto de vista sobre el concepto de estrategia colectiva y su aplicaci?n al sismo de Pisco (15 de agosto de 2007). La ayuda humanitaria fue distribuida por varios comit?s de defensa civil pero sobre todo por el Instituto Nacional de Defensa Civil (Indeci), organismo que dirigi? todo el sistema. La direcci?n del Indeci puso ?nfasis en la importancia de la acci?n colectiva para el mejoramiento del rendimiento humanitario, pero tambi?n en las dificultades que resultan de esta acci?n

Adapting the Archetype “Accidental Adversaries” in Humanitarian Operations

The present work is focused on the involuntary obstruction problem between stakeholders in humanitarian operations, specifically in search and rescue operations. The archetype of accidental adversaries is used to represent this situation. First, this works presents a brief introduction related to humanitarian logistics and collaboration or coordination problems. Then, the archetype of accidental adversaries is described and adapted for humanitarian operations. Finally, a dynamic model is presented, and the performance was evaluated in two scenarios, the first one considers operations obstruction and the second one considers resources shared between stakeholders as a collaborative strategy. As a conclusion, was found that the establishment of alliances or collaborative strategies between humanitarian organizations at the same level enhances the performance of rescue operations increasing the rescue rate. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Defining and measuring the network flexibility of humanitarian supply chains: insights from the 2015 Nepal earthquake

The efficient and effective response to disasters critically depends on humanitarian supply chains (HSCs). HSCs need to be flexible to adapt to uncertainties in needs, infrastructure conditions, and behavior of other organizations. The concept of ‘network flexibility’ is, however, not clearly defined. The lack of an unanimous definition has led to a lack of consistent understanding and comparisons. This paper makes a threefold contribution: first, it defines the concept of network flexibility for HSC in the context of sudden onset disasters. Second, it proposes a framework to measure network flexibility in HSCs. Third, we apply our framework to the 2015 Nepal earthquake case and provide evidence-based insights regarding how humanitarian organizations can improve network flexibility in HSCs. Our analyses for Nepal case show that delivery, IT support, and fleet criteria have the most influence on flexibility. Also, the application of our framework on the downstream network of nine humanitarian organizations shows low levels of network flexibility in all but one. This finding explains why several disruptions happened in relief distributions during the Nepal response.Published VersionNivå

Poisonous or non-poisonous plants? DNA-based tools and applications for accurate identification

Plant exposures are among the most frequently reported cases to poison control centres worldwide. This is a growing condition due to recent societal trends oriented towards the consumption of wild plants as food, cosmetics, or medicine. At least three general causes of plant poisoning can be identified: plant misidentification, introduction of new plant-based supplements and medicines with no controls about their safety, and the lack of regulation for the trading of herbal and phytochemical products. Moreover, an efficient screening for the occurrence of plants poisonous to humans is also desirable at the different stages of the food supply chain: from the raw material to the final transformed product. A rapid diagnosis of intoxication cases is necessary in order to provide the most reliable treatment. However, a precise taxonomic characterization of the ingested species is often challenging. In this review, we provide an overview of the emerging DNA-based tools and technologies to address the issue of poisonous plant identification. Specifically, classic DNA barcoding and its applications using High Resolution Melting (Bar-HRM) ensure high universality and rapid response respectively, whereas High Throughput Sequencing techniques (HTS) provide a complete characterization of plant residues in complex matrices. The pros and cons of each approach have been evaluated with the final aim of proposing a general user\u2019s guide to molecular identification directed to different stakeholder categories interested in the diagnostics of poisonous plants