Humanitarian Operations Research Articles

A lexicographic maximin approach to the selective assessment routing problem

Max-min approaches have been widely applied to address equity as an essential consideration in humanitarian operations. These approaches, however, have a significant drawback of being neutral when it comes to solutions with the same minimum values. These equivalent solutions, from a max-min point of view, might be significantly different. We address this problem using the lexicographic maximin approach, a refinement of the classic max-min approach. We apply this approach in the rapid needs assessment process, which is carried out immediately after the onset of a disaster, to investigate the disaster’s impact on the affected community groups through field visits. We construct routes for an assessment plan to cover community groups, each carrying a distinct characteristic, such that the vector of coverage ratios are maximized. We define the leximin selective assessment problem, which considers the bi-objective optimization of total assessment time and coverage ratio vector maximization. We solve the bi-objective problem by a heuristic approach based on the multi-directional local search framework.

Surface ruptures and land deformation from the 21 June 2022 Afghanistan earthquake

The 2022 Afghanistan earthquake occurred at the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan at 20:54:36 (UTC) on June 21, 2022. According to the USGS, the earthquake caused vibrations with a magnitude of 5.9, a hypocenter located at a depth of 10 km, and an epicenter at 33,092°N, 69,514°E. According to European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, this event resulted in disaster for human beings 1039 people died, 2949 people were injured, and damaged to homes and infrastructures of 4500 houses were partially or fully destroyed across Paktika and Khost provinces. It is necessary to improve the knowledge of this phenomenon. On the one hand, it is essential to quickly determine the extent of the affected area to provide timely relief services.
 On the other hand, it is necessary to determine the deformation characteristics of the fractured zone caused by earthquakes to minimize future damages. Conventional DInSAR technique applied to two images captured on June 18, 2022, and June 30, 2022, respectively, before and after the earthquake event shows the fractured zone with a maximum displacement of 78.4 cm, which locates on the left side of the previously identified northeast–southwest fault. The location of this zone is 15 km in the southward direction of the earthquake epicenter. The interferometric fringes show that a large area to the East of the study area is displaced in comparison to the original position. However, its Northwest region, which corresponds to the Paleogene formations, is much less affected by earthquakes. The earthquake occurred along a left lateral strike-slip fault in the plate boundary between India and Eurasia plates at the Northwestern margin of the collision.

The Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh: an analysis of the involvement of local humanitarian actors

Since August 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh from neighbouring Myanmar, resulting in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. A significant endeavour is taking place involving various humanitarian actors for the provision and overall management of the humanitarian activities in Rohingya refugee camps. The article studies the configuration and evolution of the humanitarian operations with the aim of identifying the extent of localisation, ie the involvement of the Bangladeshi actors in the management of the camps in the early stage (1–2 years) of the crisis. It employs a quantitative method by analysing the 4W data of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Segregation of humanitarian operators by national and international non-governmental organisations and a network analysis suggest that the humanitarian operations are dominated by international actors, and localisation was not achieved in the early stage of the crisis. Additionally, the article provides a profile of the humanitarian operation along with the context and background of the crisis; as such, it can be utilised by both academic and non-academic audiences.

Future challenges in humanitarian operations and the role of partnerships with academia

PurposeEngage scholars and humanitarian organizations to collaborate on impactful problems.Design/methodology/approachA total of 20 years of experience working with Humanitarian Organizations and doing research in partnership with them.FindingsA set of recommendations.Originality/valueKnowledge sharing.

How Should Access to Military Health Care Facilities Be Controlled in Conflict?

This commentary on a case analysis examines the principles that govern decisions about which patients might be admitted to an international military hospital during humanitarian or combat operations. It explores the balance between duties under the Geneva Conventions and other international humanitarian laws, the requirement to be able to provide medical support to the military mission, and the obligation of clinicians to coordinate with other health care practitioners (local civilian, local military, and nongovernment organizations). Finally, this commentary considers the practical aspects of implementing these arrangements.

Procurement Decisions on the Transportation of Food Aid in Humanitarian Operations

Purpose The purpose of this research is to see how purchasing decisions affect food aid transit in humanitarian operations. In this context, the four criteria of transportation time, transportation costs, transportation capacity, and food loss and waste are assessed in relation to local and global procurement procedures, as well as the usage of pre-positioned stock. As a result, this research establishes the correlations between the criteria and gives implications for improvement. Design/Methodology/Approach Within the mono-method quantitative study, a single data collection method is used. We gathered data from respondents working in food aid using a survey, namely an online questionnaire. The data is then examined using the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (fuzzy AHP), which is a multi-criteria decision-making technique. Findings Based on the four factors analyzed, the fuzzy AHP findings show that the preferred procurement approach, considering the four criteria studied, is local procurement, followed by the use of pre-positioned stock, and global procurement takes last place. According to the results of the cross-comparisons, humanitarian supply chain departments that focus on development aid allocate a relatively comparable percentage of pre-positioned stock and local procurement. However, in disaster relief, local procurement is by far the most favored sourcing method. Research Implications The result of the analysis shows that due to the time-sensitive nature of disaster relief, where the number of people rescued determines the response time, finding a way to increase the efficiency of humanitarian supply chain through local procurement to prevent food loss and waste and reduce transportation time is necessary. These results provide suggestions and implications for humanitarian organizations and academics. Regarding industrial implications, both development assistance and disaster relief managers and non-governmental organizations can benefit from this paper

HumOSCM for pandemic response

Purpose Humanitarian organizations have faced the unprecedented consequences of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this article, the authors therefore discuss how epidemics and pandemics, specifically Ebola and COVID-19, have affected humanitarian operations and supply chain management (HumOSCM), and how HumOSCM has contributed to preparedness for and response to epidemics and pandemics. The authors present lessons learned from responses to Ebola and COVID-19.Design/methodology/approach For this study, the authors review the scholarly HumOSCM literature, use documentary evidence from practitioner literature and apply a theory synthesis approach to derive recommendations on how HumOSCM could strengthen future responses to epidemics and pandemics.Findings The conceptualizations highlight the importance of strengthening collaboration, capability and capacity for the response to epidemics and pandemics. Furthermore, the components that can enhance the degree of collaboration, and hence, response formation, are discussed.Research limitations/implications As a non-empirical article, it suffers from the limitations of conceptual research. Hence, empirical testing of the proposed framework is recommended. The framework and propositions can serve as a basis for future studies.Practical implications The conceptual framework can help humanitarian organizations and other actors in the humanitarian sector to better understand how to prepare for future responses to epidemics and pandemics, in particular by considering the components that enhance the degree of collaboration, as well as through capability development and capacity building.Originality/value This article begins a discussion of how HumOSCM should evolve to better respond to future epidemics and pandemics.

Understanding the situation at a glance: The powerful value added of complex networks to analyse humanitarian operations

Information management is considered as a key success factor in many fields. For disaster relief operations, where resources are scarce and often overwhelmed by the magnitude of the needs of affected people, the process of collecting and using data has been overseen for years. Yet, over the last decade, many changes have been set into motion, including data pooling. This shift towards increased availability and reliability of data opens new perspectives for research, especially regarding the conception of decision support systems. This article proposes one application of complex networks in the context of humanitarian aid, using existing information. The objective is to increase the global understanding of the overall relief response, taking into account many heterogeneous elements, from existing infrastructures and local resources of the country to relief activities proposed by organisations. To take this heterogeneity into account, we used the multilayer network framework. Our approach can be used before the occurrence of disasters, to understand the weaknesses of countries’ actual situations. It can also be used during operations, either as a static cartography of current operations, or as a means to capture the dynamics of the system. It is currently limited by the lack of standardized databases, which increases the time needed to gather all the necessary information. Nevertheless, the trend is clearly going towards more professionalisation of humanitarian organisations, especially regarding data management. Our proposal fits with the current needs of humanitarian practitioners, to understand better the environment in which they operate.

Mediterranean migration governance and the role of the Italian coast guard: varying political understandings of maritime operations in the 2010s

ABSTRACT Situated on the EU’s Mediterranean borders, Italy provides the setting for a case study aimed at understanding Mediterranean migration governance in the 2010s. We adopt an actor-centred approach to explore how the Italian coast guard’s humanitarian agency was constrained and reshaped in a changed environment. We draw upon the sense-making of Italy’s political leaders and its impact on the humanitarian practices of the Italian coast guard. Migration politics is marked by political discourses framing interests and priorities according to the sense-making of the political leadership. In the last decade, Italian political leaders have constructed and reconstructed discourses on migration, providing a different understanding of the technical capacity to respond to crisis situations. In a few years, the Mare Nostrum operation was dismantled and replaced by a restrictive ‘closed-ports’ strategy to guarantee border control. Humanitarian operations at sea, a pillar of migration governance in the mid-2010s, were de facto constrained. Focusing on the pivotal role of the Italian coast guard in conducting maritime operations, we explain why its role of vanguard in developing humanitarian practices was marginalized over time.

Applications of structural equation modeling in humanitarian operations

Humanitarian operations have the primary purpose of saving lives and providing relief to the people affected by disasters. Due to the high number of disasters that occurred worldwide, the research in the domain of humanitarian operations has increased. Adequate tooling and systematic procedures are increasingly focusingon the humanitarian context to minimize the difficulties faced by operations. Thus, this article aims to review the existing literature related to applying structural equation modeling in humanitarian operations to understand the main topics covered by the studies. A review of 17 published documents provides descriptive background, such as evolution per year, main publication channels, the number of citations, and content analysis. The results show six main topics: coordination, performance management, communication, social inequality, readiness/agility, and integration. Based on that, the study offers some suggestions for future research.

Convolutional Networks for Classification of Mortars

Abstract The task of classifying unexploded mortars is critical in both humanitarian and military explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) operations. Classification needs to be completed quickly and accurately and is the first step toward disarming the ordnance because it provides information about the fuzing mechanism, or the stage in the arming cycle that the ordnance is currently in. To assist EOD technicians with mortar identification, this article presents an automated image-based algorithm and the database of images used in its development. The algorithm utilizes convolutional networks with variations to training to improve performance for ordnance found in varying states of disassembly. The classifier developed was found to be 98.5% accurate for these lab condition photos; future work will focus on more cluttered environments.

Evidence-based models to support humanitarian operations and crisis management

Term humanitarian operation (HO) is a concept extracted from the need to perform supply chain operations in special, risky, and critical events. Understanding and implementing operations under such conditions is a strategic responsibility. Due to its importance, we design a framework for organizational learning from major incidents through root cause analysis. The case studies contain a purely industrial disaster at Bhopal and a mixed industrial-natural disaster at Fukushima. An approach is proposed for organizational safety by incorporating techniques related to root cause analysis applied to one case study. Moreover, we employ the analytic hierarchy process, which is applied to the second case study. We incorporate operations management models to analyse data related to two major disasters. The case studies in two organizations are then compared with respect to their causes and effects along with the models adopted to support HO& crisis management (CM). The contribution is the use of hybrid modelling techniques to analyse disasters in terms of humanitarian operations and crisis management.

A Hybrid Decision Support Model for Deploying Humanitarian Operations to Respond to Earthquakes

This paper addresses the four essential humanitarian operations: location of emergency facilities, prepositioning of supplies, evacuation, and relief distribution by proposing a hybrid method that combines fuzzy set theory, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS), and multi-objective programming. The objectives of the proposition are to minimize the evacuation distance, the cost of humanitarian operations, and the suitability of facilities based on qualitative factors while considering the demand, capacity, budget, and utilization constraints. Engineering managers can benefit from the collective expertise of multiple decision-makers, using their knowledge to automatically determine emergency facility location and allocation processes by running the proposed model. The model attempts to achieve a compromise solution for multiple objectives in various humanitarian operations. Finally, the real case study of the Wenchuan earthquake in China is taken to validate the model.

Desalination by endothermal generators

Many regions of the planet are under water stress that can create humanitarian disasters. Where available, seawater can undergo a desalination process to produce drinkable water. The desalination processes may use thermal and mechanical energy. Methods based on evaporation and flashing are thermal driven, whether water osmosis uses mechanical energy. An endothermal motor can generate both mechanical and thermal energy. This paper focuses on a Diesel generator able to supply an electrical power of 362 kW. It evaluates the water production of a combined system with a Multi-Effect Evaporator and a Reverse Osmosis system. The Multi-Effect Evaporator uses the thermal energy from the exhaust gases; the Reverse Osmosis uses the generator's electrical power. The generator is typical for marine applications and can be deployed in humanitarian operations. The system can produce 1,011 m3 per day of drinkable water, enough to supply the daily basic needs of a population of about 50,500 persons.

Impact of pandemics on humanitarian retailing operations: A voucher's case

AbstractIn 2020, the world started a fight against a pandemic that has severely disrupted commercial and humanitarian supply chains. Humanitarian organizations (HOs), like the World Food Programme (WFP), adjusted their programs in order to manage this pandemic. One such program is cash and voucher assistance (CVA), which is used to bolster beneficiaries' freedom of choice regarding their consumption. In this vein, WFP supports local retailers to provide CVA to beneficiaries who do not have access to a functioning market. However, the operations of these stores can suffer from a very high transmission risk of COVID‐19 unless preventive measures are put in place to reduce it. This paper discusses strategies that retailers and HOs can enact to maximize their service and dignity levels while minimizing transmission risk under a CVA program during a pandemic. We argue that HOs providing CVA programs can improve their assistance during a pandemic by implementing strategies that impact the retailing operations of their retailers.

Maturity model for evaluating disaster and humanitarian operations

PurposeThis paper proposes a maturity model (MM) for assessing disaster operations and identifying strategies for organisations to evolve their maturity stages.Design/methodology/approachThis study applies a systematic literature review to identify state-of-the-art work related to maturity models for disaster operations. In addition, the study develops a case study to validate the proposed maturity model in a generic scenario and two real-life scenarios.FindingsThe analysis of 158 papers in the literature resulted in identifying 8 maturity models for disaster operations. Based on their structure, the authors proposed a new model with five maturity stages suitable for any of the four phases of the disaster life cycle (i.e. mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery). In addition, the research identified and presents 24 strategies for improving disaster operations according to each maturity stage transition. Finally, the research presents a case study that evaluates the disaster response operations from a Civil Defense organisation considering a response scenario disaster in general, a flood scenario, and the COVID-19 pandemic scenario.Originality/valueThis study provides the following three main contributions useful for academics and practitioners in the disaster operations area: a new maturity model for assessing disaster operations, a strategy guide for improving disaster operations based on a maturity evolution and an empirical study exploring the approximation between academia and professionals involved in real-life disaster operations management.

Cash versus in-kind transfer programs in humanitarian operations: An optimization program and a case study

Humanitarian organizations, mandated with responding to emergencies, generally provide food assistance via in-kind and/or cash transfers. Although cash and in-kind transfers have had varying effects across different regions, the superiority of one over the other has been debated. This study considers a mixed strategy that includes both cash and in-kind transfer in the presence of finite budget, given a slow-onset disaster such as famine or drought. Importantly, it proposes an evidence-based framework based on the given data. Specifically, a two-stage stochastic program with recourse is proposed, where uncertainty stems from the slow-onset disaster that has non-uniform impact across a given geographical region. The proposed program is first used to study the slow-onset disaster situation in Kenya, and then to evaluate the performance of the cash versus in-kind transfer programs. We also solved larger size problem instances using the sample average approximation (SAA) algorithm, and the resulting analyses underscore the deductions of the case study that although cash transfer is more efficient than in-kind transfer, however, the latter is inevitable due to local unavailability of certain commodities.

Human Resource Management and Humanitarian Operations Performance: A Case Study of Humanitarian Organizations in Malaysia

Aim/Purpose: This research aims to analyze the effect of human resource management on humanitarian operations performance, using humanitarian organizations in Malaysia as a case. Background: Humanitarian organizations need to develop and continue effective on-the-job human resource management, such as training and development and managing employee performance to enhance the performance of their humanitarian operations. Methodology: The sampling technique that was conducted is probability sampling. In particular, the technique is called stratified sampling. This technique is chosen because it is involving the division of a population into a smaller group, called “strata”. The questionnaire survey was distributed to humanitarian organizations in Malaysia to collect research data, and PLS-SEM analysis was conducted to validate the conceptual model. Contribution: This research focuses on the effect of human resource management on humanitarian operations performance in humanitarian organizations with consistent training to ensure successful humanitarian operations. Findings: The results of PLS-SEM analysis confirmed that Training and Employee Development, Recruitment and Employee Selection, and Communicative Management Style are significantly correlated with humanitarian operations performance, giving 75.7% variations which means that these human resource management are critical factors for increasing humanitarian operations performance in Malaysian humanitarian organizations. Recommendations for Practitioners: This research will enhance humanitarian operations performance for humanitarian organizations, in-line policies outlined under the Malaysia National Security Council Directive No. 20, and benefit the field of disaster management. Recommendation for Researchers: This research can be used by the authorized individual involved in humanitarian operations to satisfy the needs of the victims, which ultimately contributes to the performance of these humanitarian organizations. Impact on Society: This research highlighted the human resource management that is vital for humanitarian organizations, which will increase humanitarian operations performance in an organization. Future Research: This study is conducted in the context of humanitarian organizations in Malaysia. It is unclear whether the key findings of this study can be generalized. Therefore, it is suggested that, in future research, the current research model should be extended to include different countries for validation.

On the inventory performance of demand forecasting methods of medical items in humanitarian operations

The inventory management of medical items in humanitarian operations is a challenging task due to the intermittent nature of their demand and long replenishment lead-times. While effective response to emergency results in inventory build-up which saves human lives, excess inventories could be intentionally burnt or donated which is costly for humanitarian organizations. Henceforth, linking demand forecasting to the inventory control task is shown to be a significant scope to offer a higher performance. In this vein, it is key to accurately select adequate forecasting methods. This paper investigates the effectiveness of parametric and non-parametric demand forecasting methods that are commonly considered to deal with stock keeping units (SKUs) characterized with an intermittent demand in industrial contexts. To do so, we conduct an empirical study by means of data related to 1254 SKUs managed in three warehouses of a major humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Middle-east and Africa. The investigation is carried out to compare the inventory performance of three parametric and two bootstrapping methods when used with an order-up-to-level inventory control policy. The results demonstrate the high performance of the bootstrapping methods in achieving higher service levels. The investigation enables to gain insights on the forecasting method that should be selected under particular assumptions on the demand and the lead-time value.

Interplays between Humanitarian Procurement Operations and Fund-Raising

Interplays between Humanitarian Procurement Operations and Fund-Raising