Humanitarian Logistics And Disasters Course

Introduction

The global demand for humanitarian assistance, including requests for assistance by national governments, continues to rise. This is triggered and sustained by increased severity of natural hazards, escalating conflict, and a dramatic increase in vulnerabilities caused by the global financial crisis, continuing high food prices, the scarcity of energy and water, population growth and urbanization. This comprehensive course focuses on pre-disaster preparation rather than post-disaster assistance; it provides current thinking as well as best practice for those who need to understand the many challenges and the ways to respond effectively.

On completion of this course you should be able to: 

• Examines the challenges facing those whose role it is to organize and distribute resources in difficult situations.
• Gain an understanding of the key issues including warehousing, procurement, and funding.
• Discuss the humanitarian supply network management and understand how to respond to disasters in a rapid and coordinated manner.
• Choose and adapt best options in challenging and moving complex contexts
• Analyze and critically review supply chain strategies for responding to domestic disasters
• Discuss the Critical success factors in the context of humanitarian aid supply chains and identify the role of technology in humanitarian logistics in Africa

Course Outline

Introduction

• Seven Guiding Principles of the Design of Market-Savvy S&OP

Risky Business: What Humanitarians Can Learn From Business Logisticians – And Vice Versa?

• A brief review of recent literature
• The players and the stage
• Supply chain risk management in the humanitarian world

Impacts Of Funding Systems On Humanitarian Operations

• Structure of funding systems
• Impacts of financial flows on disaster response
• Incentives provided by donors

The Importance Of Information Technology In Humanitarian Supply Chains: Opportunities And Challenges In The Helios Project

• The relevance of supply chain information
• Some recent history
• The Helios initiative
• A brief overview of the ILPPM journey
• Reflections on the ILPPM project
• Further growth: inter-agency efforts

Humanitarian Logistics Metrics: Where We Are And How We Might Improve

• Humanitarian logistics
• Performance measurement in commercial supply networks
• Performance measurement in ‘not for profit’ supply networks
• Academic perspectives
• Practitioner perspectives
• The recipient’s perspective

Humanitarian Logistics And The Cluster Approach: Global Shifts And The Us Perspective

• Background
• Change afoot – the cluster approach and implications for humanitarian logistics
• Business as usual or…?
• US perspectives on humanitarian logistics, the CA and the LC

The 2004 Thailand Tsunami Reviewed: Lessons Learned

• What happened on 26 December 2004?
• Hazard event response in Thailand
• Reflections and lessons to be learned

The Journey To Humanitarian Supply Network Management: An African Perspective

• Types of disaster
• The nature and incidence of disasters in Africa
• Disasters and sustainable development in Africa
• The scope and role of humanitarian logistics
• Unpredictable demand and supply
• Efficiency of disaster response
• Critical success factors in the context of humanitarian aid supply chains
• Disaster risk management and contingency planning in Africa
• Institutional frameworks and policies
• Multiplicity of actors: the critical roles of inter-agency communication, collaboration and coordination
• The role of technology in humanitarian logistics in Africa
• Human capacity building for disaster risk management in Africa
• Challenges of humanitarian logistics in Africa

Humanitarian Logistics In The United States: Supply Chain Systems For Responding To Domestic Disasters

• Overview of US emergency response
• Florida division of emergency management
• Supply chain strategies

The Supply Network’s Role As An Enabler Of Development

• Improving access to essential medicine
• Reliable supply links and economic development
• A final word – the supply chain as an enabler

Humanitarian Logistics Professionalism

• Context and background
• Understanding logistics: commercial best practice; supply chain management as the evolutionary development of logistics
• Further application of supply chain management: military adaptation – the use of commercial best practice in the defense logistics environment
• Humanitarian logistics: an opportunity to develop and adapt commercial and military approaches
• Challenges of, and for, humanitarian logistics
• Gaining knowledge: the basis of professionalism in humanitarian logistics
• Professionalism – the response for, and of, humanitarian logistics

Humanitarian Logistics: A Cultural Perspective

• Hierarchy of needs
• Sourcing humanitarian aid
• Transporting humanitarian aid
• Distributing humanitarian aid
• The importance of local knowledge

The Impossible Interface? Combining Humanitarian Logistics And Military Supply Chain Capabilities

• Humanitarian and military logistics
• Humanitarian principles and ideology
• A strategic-level decision
• The joint logistics and supply chain interface: function defines form

Disaster Agencies And Military Forces – Not Such Strange Bedfellows After All!

• From cold to hot wars: the growth in humanitarian operations/ complex emergencies
• The turning point
• The players and their roles
• The good, the bad and the ugly
• Accept these realities – and move on
• There is more to this than war-fighting and military victories
• Both sides need each other
• So, what? The need for a widely understood doctrine
• The example of logistic supply chains
• The time for change is now

So, Where Next? Developments In Humanitarian Logistics

• From inter-agency coordination to relationship building in the supply chain
• Technology development and the pragmatism of humanitarian operations research (OR)
• Questioning disaster taxonomies and the humanitarian-development divide
• Units of analysis – taking the strategic view
• Addressing sustainability
• Concluding remarks