The Use of Technological Innovations in Promoting Effective Humanitarian Aid - A Systematic Review of the Literature

The number and scale of natural and man-made disasters is increasing at an unprecedented rate, leading to devastating consequences for citizens, governments and entire economies. In response, Humanitarian Supply Chains (HSC) are used as a means of reducing suffering and saving lives. HSCs manage and deliver aid to those in need after a disaster strikes and exist only for the period of the relief operation. With reduced budgets there is an impetus to investigate technological innovations that offer increased efficiencies and reduced costs. One such innovation is information and communications technology (ICT); currently under-utilized by HSCs. This paper investigates the benefits, barriers and enablers of increased ICT adoption in HSCs and offers solutions most suited to their needs. The study develops a matrix that identifies the enablers and barriers of implementing innovative ICT and highlights associated managerial implications and suggested areas for future research.

Bibliometric Analysis of the Potential of Technologies in the Humanitarian Supply Chain

This study presents a bibliometric analysis of research on technology in the humanitarian supply chain. The methodology includes performance analysis and science mapping to explore the application of technologies in humanitarian supply chains. This paper contributes to the literature by examining the most influential authors, trends, journals, countries, institutions, and the recent humanitarian supply chain collaboration. The information presented in this research was obtained with the Scopus database. The study identified 342 documents after applying filters to screen for duplicates and manuscripts unrelated to the topic. The articles were analyzed using MS Excel and VOSviewer. The research provides an overview of state of the art showing a high collaboration between the authors Ramesh A. and Kabra C, and the most relevant institutions were the Griffith Business School and the Delft University of Technology. Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management and Journal of Disaster Research were the most productive journals. The terms analysis shows that “disasters”, “disaster prevention”, “humanitarian logistics”, and “human” are the most used keywords. The study identifies future research lines related to the interaction between critical technologies to deliver real benefits to the humanitarian supply chain. As a result, it proposes integrating the significant contributions of new technologies, such as blockchain, big data, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, virtual and augmented reality, and the social media relief phase following the disaster. It also indicates gaps in knowledge in terms of research related to human-made disasters and health emergencies.

Methodology for Designing Humanitarian Supply Chains: Distribution of COVID-19 Vaccines in Mexico

This paper presents a methodology for designing a humanitarian supply chain (HSC) for immunization in Mexico. The study analyzes the abilities of HSCs provided in the literature and those that are relevant for the HSC vaccination in Mexico. In addition, the stakeholders involved in HSC for immunization were studied. A sentiment analysis of more than 900 newspaper articles was conducted to determine society’s perception of the government’s strategy for vaccine distribution. Considering these aspects and a review of the state-of-the-art in the design of supply chains, a methodology for HSC is proposed. Some of the findings are that resilience and agility, the most important abilities in HSCs in Mexico, can be achieved through government support and strong collaboration between different stakeholders, which was found to be the weakest point of the strategy. The problems observed in the vaccination strategy in Mexico were as follows: (1) a single physical space per municipality was defined for the application of the vaccine, (2) there is a shortage of vaccines, and (3) as far as we know, no methodology has been applied to carry out immunization. This approach considers the design of HSCs in terms of capabilities and stakeholders, which, to the best of our knowledge, is a novel aspect of the literature. This methodology can be used for various scenarios of HSCs in Mexico.

Evaluation of Humanitarian Supply Chain Resilience in Flood Disaster

Frequent natural hazards such as flooding and the devastating consequences of severe events make the humanitarian supply chain particularly important in alleviating the suffering of those communities impacted by such events. However, the ambiguity of information and the different goals of stakeholders demand that the humanitarian supply chain must be resilient. This research adopts the use of literature review and expert opinions to identify the indicators that affect the resilience of the humanitarian supply chain using the flood event in Hechuan District, China in 2020 as an example. Based on the combination of fuzzy Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory and Analytic Network Process (fuzzy-DEMATEL-ANP), the interrelationships between the indicators and the weights of each indicator are calculated. The research results indicate that decision-makers in the humanitarian supply chain should vigorously coordinate the cooperation among stakeholders, ensure the effective transmission of information, and formulate forward-looking strategic plans. At the same time, these key decision makers should also be aware of the need to adjust their strategies at different stages of the flooding event in order to achieve a flexible humanitarian supply chain that responds to the varying demands over the course of a flooding event. The results of this study will help professionals involved in humanitarian supply chains to develop strategies and plans to become more resilient thus helping to reduce losses from natural hazards such as floods.

Key Challenges to Sustainable Humanitarian Supply Chains: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 has had a major impact on health, economic, social, and industrial activities. It has disrupted supply chain management and affected the movement of essential supplies to a large extent. This study aims to identify and evaluate the challenges hampering sustainable humanitarian supply chain management (SHSCM). Twenty critical challenges to SHSCM are identified using a comprehensive literature review, and three strategies were developed. The challenges and strategies were verified using expert input. The challenges were evaluated using the neutrosophic analytic hierarchical process (AHP) method. The neutrosophic TODIM (an acronym in Portuguese for interactive multicriteria decision making) method was then used to select the best strategy. The findings reveal that facility location problems, short lead times for emergency supplies, spread of rumors, rapid emergence of new clusters, and doubt concerning the available remedy are five critical challenges in SHSCM during COVID-19. Public–private partnerships are identified as the best strategy in SHSCM. Finally, this paper discusses the implications to sustainable development goals in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.

Framework for a resilient religious tourism supply chain for mitigating post-pandemic risk

PurposeThis paper aims to study the religious tourism supply chain and understand and introduce resilience across the same to mitigate post-pandemic disruptions.Design/methodology/approachIn this manuscript, a systematic literature review has been done to identify the gaps in the religious tourism supply chain, which gives adequate revenue to India but not studied yet. The identified gap shaped this study's objectives and research questions and guided the authors to devise a theoretical framework for the religious tourism supply chain.FindingsThe key findings of this research paper led to identifying both threats and opportunities for the religious tourism supply chain, which has been into existence and caused many disasters in the past. As pandemic Covid-19 shut the doors of these religious destinations for extended periods, it became necessary for governments, state authorities and private parties to think and devise the post unlock operating processes for this supply chain. This thinking directed the authors to create a framework for the smooth flow of people and other services across this supply chain. The collaborative efforts of all the stakeholders at various levels can realize the actual working of the suggested framework. A stagewise set of processes has been proposed to understand the resilience across the religious tourism supply chain and reduce disruptions.Practical implicationsCovid-19 pandemic has devastated the world economies and disrupted the supply chains of all sectors. The paper elaborates the need for cohesive efforts to introduce resilience across humanitarian supply chains and phase-wise processes to reduce the disruptions caused by various disasters. These systematic efforts will familiarize the readers with the need for resilience across the religious tourism supply chain. Still, it would also assist in generating revenue for the Indian government and reviving the economy soon.Originality/valueThe trade of religious tourism adds a significant contribution to the Indian economy in terms of revenue, employment, visibility of culture and destination, etc. The Covid-19 pandemic has immensely disrupted the tourism sector supply chain, resulting in huge losses (FICCI report 2020). The introduction and implementation of resilience across the religious tourism supply chain can diminish the losses and assist in reviving the economy soon. Construct of resilience across the religious tourism supply chain has not been studied yet. This manuscript contributes to identifying post-pandemic challenges across the religious tourism supply chain and ways to integrate resilience to reduce disruptions caused by disasters.