Humanitarian Logistics: A Disaster Relief Operations Framework During Pandemic Covid-19 in Achieving Healthy Communities

Abstract

High levels of coordination, cooperation, and collaboration between involved aid providers are needed for efficient logistics processes. In the immediate response phase, coordination, cooperation, and collaboration are firstly required when non-governmental organizations (NGOs) assess the beneficiaries’ needs by sending field assessment and coordination teams into the disaster area. The question is, how to respond to the natural disaster in the most efficient manner to minimize the loss and maximize the efficiency of the rescue mission. This research explores the Malaysian scenario of humanitarian logistics as well as the challenges in collaborations between government agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) during disaster relief operations in Malaysia. Thus, this study used past literature to proposed a conceptual framework and identified two factors namely, trust and coordination as the key factors in the successful humanitarian logistics framework. In addition, the role of NGOs during a disaster is also important to reduce the burden on government agencies in managing the humanitarian aid distribution process. Collaboration between government and NGOs is pursued in the mitigation and long-term recovery phases, where decisions are taken with particular caution, and NGOs’ strategies are adjusted to others without time pressure. The most important driver for successful collaboration is trust. Coordination provisions will increase trust between agencies involved in disaster relief operations. Therefore, building trust between parties involved in certain task or disaster relief activities can be enhanced by adding up a contract agreement to ensure both parties will work efficiently and coordinate with the job and minimize the risk that could occur.