Humanitarian Relief Sustainability: A Framework of Humanitarian Logistics Digital Business Ecosystem

Abstract

Humanitarian logistics constraints in response to natural and human-made disasters are subjects of much scrutiny and concern by global humanitarian actors, government, scientist and the public. Disasters impact continues to make headlines annually as lives and properties are lost. The humanitarian community, through their logistics operations, attends to such disasters when it occurs. Despite the assistance of humanitarian relief operations support, the relief community is faced challenges such as huge logistics costs, fewer donor supports, which affects the delivery of relief to affected people. The high cost of humanitarian logistics operations on disaster finances continue to pose a hurdle for operators as donor support is not worthwhile. The study uses a systematic literature review coupled with an axiological philosophical lens approach to developing a Humanitarian Logistics Digital Business Ecosystem (HLDBE) framework as an alternative way to sustain the humanitarian logistics operations and reliefs through hybrid humanitarian- business logistics sector. Seven elements derived from the framework are collaborative blocks for establishing a sustainable HLDBE for relief logistics operations in creating of the financial reserve, capacity and empowerment building for domestic and international humanitarian logistics operations under a win-win opportunity for stakeholders. Implementation of this ecosystem will have a positive impact on affected economies. Future research direction is also proposed to further the research direction.