Humanitarian Logistics and its Challenges - Literature review Example

Humanitarian Logistics Introduction In 12th January Haiti experienced a 7.0 magnitude quake that struck near Port au Prince. 220,000 died, and3.5 million people were affected by the quake. At its peak, 1.5 million people were living in camps where 100,000 people were at risk from flooding and storms. These people needed humanitarian aid so that they can access the basic needs such as food, water, medication, shelter, and clothing among others. Humanitarian logistics were essential in delivering these aid services and goods to the affected Haitians. Humanitarian logistics specializes in material management and distribution of supplies during complex emergencies, or natural disasters to the affected area and individuals. According to Martin & Peter (2011), humanitarian logistics are essentially similar to commercial logistics, but there are significant differences. These differences are; unpredictable demand, lack of initial resources in terms of supply, technology, human resources, capacity, and funding, high humanitarian stakes regarding timelines, and suddenness of demand for enormous amounts of a broad variety of products and services. According to Alexander (2010), one of the steps of humanitarian supply chain is assessment and planning. An emergency assessment like in this case of Haiti, is the procedure of collecting, analyzing and disseminating logistics related information relative to the impact of the disaster. Situational assessment establishes the extent of the impact, whereas, through capacity assessment the assessment establishes logistical needs (Alexander 2010). Humanitarian Logistics Assessment- The Case of Haiti Earthquake According to 2010 world bank development indicators, the Haiti population was 9.7 million. Haiti is a poor country and has experienced several natural disasters. The local mechanisms are not able to cope with these disasters through offering humanitarian aid, therefore, the need for foreign aid agencies. However, these foreign aid agencies need to have efficient planning and assessment methods of emergency situations (Martin & Peter 2011). This will ensure that victims of the natural disasters receive humanitarian assistance in time. The January 2010 earthquake affected 3.5 million where over 300,000 people were injured, and 220,000 people were reported dead. To enable aid agencies, to offer humanitarian assistance there was a need to plan, survey, collect data, analyze the data, interpret the data, forecast, report, and monitor and evaluate the situation (Martin & Peter 2011). These are the elements of an assessment. The scope of the assessment included some of the following issues. The following also covers various ways in which these issues were dealt with for successful humanitarian aid in after Haiti 2010 earthquake. The following issues were noted by the U.S. state department. After the quake, the phone networks in the country failed, this made it difficult for the aid agencies to communicate. The electricity supply was also affected, and that night the capital was in total darkness, making it difficult for the aid agencies to offer emergency services. A lot of traffic was reported, and everyone was trying to reach their family and friends. Traffic was difficult since the streets were extremely narrow making it difficult for the aid agencies to transport emergency supplies to the victims. Also, most of the roads were blocked by debris. The sea transport was immensely affected due to the damage caused to Port-au-Prince. This hampered the rescue and aid efforts and also caused confusion and congestion. Since the airport was intact, the aid agencies were flying to offer humanitarian aid, although out of the fourteen airports found in Haiti, only four of them have paved runways. The Red Cross dispatched a relief from Geneva to Haiti, and the UN’s World Food Programme gave out food aid. The following are some of commodities and services that were required to offer humanitarian aid to the affected people; food, water, shelter, medical supplies, vehicles, aircrafts, clothes, human resources, and funds to finance all the these emergency services and goods, among others. To distribute food and water various distribution hubs were identified in different locations of the city. UN allocated money for work programs, to employ the citizens of Haiti to help in clearing all the rubble and this will help in delivering the aid. Infrastructure damage experts, communications specialists, clearing specialists, from foreign countries assisted in providing their expertise in repairing damaged power lines, phone networks, and water/sewer lines, among others. To ensure efficient delivery of water to the victims’ water tanks were built in different locations of the city, in addition to water that was, being distributed through air. Port au Prince is the capital city of Haiti, and since it was the one which was struck by the earthquake aid could not be transported through this port. To help the Haiti citizens to find out information on family and friends, the U.S. state department established a Haiti person finder tool. Three days after the quake the humanitarian aid was still not enough to help the victims. Disaster relief agencies experienced lack of loading machines resulting to inconveniences. The rescue and the search teams were scouring survivors with the absence of diggers. Homeless people were stranded on the streets making it difficult to deploy heavy rescue machinery to the rescue scene. Also, the absence of offloading and loading machines in the capital’s airport lead to manual unload of rescue equipment and first aid products. There were security concerns by the aid agencies since some of their warehouses around the city were prone to looters. The aid agencies reported that looters tried to hijack their trucks transporting the aid products. This limited the aid agencies to operate in some areas where there was a security. What was worse is that the earthquake also struck the main prison in Port au Prince leading to escape of prisoners. These hampered the urgent, required assistance to the victims. To address the insecurity the Haiti government, aid agencies, and foreign governments agreed to deploy security officers in the city and surrounding areas. According to the Logistics Capacity Assessment, the Case of Haiti 2008 had a relationship with the following; the relief efforts were not well coordinated as the UN’s World Food Programme at one point indicated that two million people needed food aid and it had reached only four thousand victims. Also, the small airport filled to capacity and an intervention was needed to manage the planes influx, although fuel shortages hampered the efforts since some aircraft clogged up the runway. Many survivors died while waiting for assistance. Conclusion The humanitarian logistics of the January 2010 Haiti earthquake required background information of the country. These helps the aid agencies to be able to assess and plan for the humanitarian aid needed and how they will distribute the aid products and services to victims. After the earthquake, the following support was required immediately; evacuation of individuals from the affected areas, provision of medical support, identification of organizations with staff in the areas affected, and provision of security services to people in Haiti or arriving in Haiti. These services were being offered by different aid agencies and personnel, and there was a need for co-ordination. The locals and the neighboring countries were also required to offer their help in rescue efforts and the supplies, storage, distribution and the security of aid products. References Martin, C. & Peter,T. (2011). Humanitarian Logistics: Meeting the Challenge of Preparing for and Responding to Disasters. London: Kogan Page Publishers Alexander, B. (2010). Humanitarian Logistics: Modeling Supply Chain Processes of Humanitarian Organizations. Switzerland: Haupt Verlag. The Logistics Capacity Assessment. (2008). The Case of Haiti-Draft. Retrieved from http://www.logcluster.org/tools/lca/logistics-capacity-assessment-lca-hti/IA-LCA_Haiti_2008_draft.pdf Read More