In the last decade, there has been a significant increase in the number of natural disasters worldwide. The average number of deaths caused by natural disasters in the last decade was 78,000 per year, which represented an increase of over 82% in such deaths compared to the last decade of the 20th century.
The aforementioned upward trend regarding natural disasters contributes to the search for ways to increase the effectiveness of the aid provided. One of the areas for increasing the effectiveness of aid is humanitarian logistics, also known as aid logistics or simply humanitarian logistics. Tools and methods – largely known from business and military logistics – can be successfully adapted to the area of humanitarian action management. Logistics can therefore help in the proper organization of humanitarian actions, and more specifically: to acquire the necessary resources (needed to provide aid to victims), ensure their delivery, and secure the processes of storage and distribution of aid supplies to victims. In summary, these actions lead to the main goal – providing efficient aid and removing the consequences of the disaster.
Humanitarian logistics is not limited to providing aid to victims of natural disasters only, but also covers victims of man-made disasters. Humanitarian aid must always be characterized – in accordance with the main principle of humanitarianism – by respect for the other person and the desire to reduce their suffering.
Humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid should be provided in accordance with the rules of “Good Humanitarian Donorship” and the provisions of the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid, from which the principles presented in Table 1 are derived.
Humanitarian organizations can operate in different structures, and in this respect, they can be divided into governmental, non-governmental, or organizations cooperating with international bodies (for example, under the auspices of the UN). The largest Polish organizations involved in humanitarian aid include: the Polish Red Cross, which belongs to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, Caritas Polska, which cooperates with Caritas Internationalis, or the Polish Humanitarian Action, founded and led to this day by Janina Ochojska.
Humanitarian logistics
Humanitarian organizations operate in specific conditions, which is why logistics in this area is also non-standard. In humanitarian logistics, several characteristics can be mentioned, such as:
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forced speed of action, and thus a short time to organize the operation,
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lack of a range of information needed to plan and execute logistics operations,
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limited resources and infrastructure (it may be destroyed or simply non-existent),
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unpredictability of the demand and supply side,
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unpredictability at the place where aid is provided,
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every disaster is different, which does not allow for the standardization of the humanitarian aid supply chain.
The main task facing humanitarian logistics is the fastest possible delivery of aid supplies from the collection point to those in need, which usually includes deliveries of food, water, medicine, and ensuring appropriate sanitary conditions and shelter for the victims.
In organizing humanitarian actions at the management level, three most important stages can be mentioned (Figure 3). The overriding issue is maintaining a state of alertness by the humanitarian organization – for this purpose, action plans should be developed for the occurrence of various types of disasters. Such actions allow for a more efficient response at the moment of a disaster. The next stage is the occurrence of the disaster itself and the implementation of a temporary management project.
The final stage is reconstruction and prevention (deliberately combined due to their long-term nature), which should follow the completion of emergency aid at the disaster site.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 6/2010.