Human resource allocation for humanitarian organizations: a systemic perspective

Abstract

Human resource allocation appears to be one of the important factors toward effective humanitarian relief operations. Particularly in developing countries, the role of volunteers which is mostly managed by humanitarian organizations has become prominent. Due to the limited human resources, the humanitarian organizations are challenged to allocate their resources to both provide assistance for disaster victims and build organization capacity effectively. The present research aims at identifying effective human resources allocation policy in humanitarian organizations. A formal simulation model was developed using system dynamics approach. Two scenarios, i.e., constant relief demand and empirical relief demand, were developed and tested. Experiments were conducted to examine various allocation policies for both scenarios. Results indicate there is allocation trade-off when it comes to allocate human resources to relief operations and capacity building. Results highlight that allocating resources to capacity building is necessary to sustain relief operations in the long-term.