Analysis: there is a major logistical operation behind all emergency responses to humanitarian disasters worldwide
Every year, the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the globe are affected by disasters. These disasters can be manmade because of civil unrest, military conflict, war, terrorism or due to such natural catastrophes as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, fires and droughts leading to famine.
Whether natural or manmade, all disasters result in wide spread human suffering. The Pan American Health Organisation describes a disaster as any event which causes widespread human suffering, and a breakdown in the normal functioning of a community that also overwhelms local response capability.
The cumulative damage would be much worse without a humanitarian response from organisations across the globe. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian network and is guided by seven fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, universality and unity. They launch emergency appeals for big and complex disasters affecting lots of people who will need long-term support to recover and have a long and lengthy list of such disasters across the world.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Jason Straziuso from the International Committee of the Red Cross discusses the situation in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol
According to the World Food Programme, there are currently six conflicts in the world pushing an unprecedented number of people into severe hunger, namely Ukraine, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
There is a major logistical operation behind all frontline emergency responses to humanitarian disasters. Following most disasters, there is a requirement for the rapid delivery of personnel, supplies and services to difficult-to-reach locations. Logistics include a broad range of activities, from management of the humanitarian operational environment (security, communications systems) to the land, sea and air transport/storage/distribution of programmes supplies and staff.
In business, logistics is basically a co-ordinated and planned approach to having the right product in the right place, in the right condition at the right price. Humanitarian logistics involve a completely different set of characteristics including unpredictability of demand, in terms of timing, location, type, and size; suddenness of the occurrence of demand in large amounts but with short lead times for a wide variety of supplies; high stakes associated with the timeliness of deliveries and lack of resources in terms of supply, people, technology, transportation capacity and money.
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From RTÉ Six One News, UN Food Agency warns of famines of 'biblical' proportions
There was very little research into humanitarian logistics prior to the mid-2000s. In their 2009 paper based on a case study in Ghana, Gyöngyi Kovács and Karen Spens identified the challenges of humanitarian logisticians with respect to different types of disasters, phases of disaster relief and types of humanitarian organisations. Regarding the latter, there are a large number of organisations with sometimes different agendas and different roles to play. These include governments; donors; international and regional inter-governmental organisations (IGO); non-government organisations (NGOs); national police and armed forces; media; commercial and private sector organisations and, of course the local population.
In order to ensure the best response to where it is needed most, this network of organisations and personnel must work in harmony and requires a high level of coordination and collaboration. In past decade, humanitarian logistics has developed into a new discipline and a substantial body of research has been published in the Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management.
There are currently a number of dedicated humanitarian logistics stakeholders who play a crucial role in ensuring aid is transported to where it is needed most. The Global Logistics Cluster provides coordination and information management to support operational decision-making and improve the predictability, timeliness and efficiency of the humanitarian emergency response.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Cian McCormack speaks to people attempting to flee Ukraine for surrounding countries
Where necessary, the Logistics Cluster also facilitates access to common logistics services. Due to its expertise in the field of humanitarian logistics, the World Food Programme (WFP) was chosen by the United Nations Inter-Agency Standing Committee as the lead agency for the Logistics Cluster. WFP hosts the Global Logistics Cluster support team in its headquarters in Rome. WFP also acts as a 'provider of last resort’ offering common logistics services, when critical gaps hamper the humanitarian response.
The Humanitarian Logistics Association is a non-profit organisation with a global reach. Their goal is to empower logisticians to drive cross sector solutions that are locally sustainable and globally enabled to deliver aid more effectively. Members are drawn from across the sector, with NGOs, private sector suppliers, academics and individuals who are working on the frontline. The association provides a platform for them to come together to share knowledge, collaborate and discuss innovative solutions which deliver aid swiftly to people, when they need it most.
In its January 2022 report, the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) stated that many challenges in humanitarian aid are linked, one way or another, to logistics. Its overarching aims in this logistics policy are to support a more efficient and effective humanitarian response; support the greening of humanitarian aid and raise the profile of humanitarian logistics. The policy sets out that ECHO will work to raise the profile of logistics and support the paradigm shift in complementarity with all partners, particularly the Global Logistics Cluster.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
