Lessons from the humanitarian disaster logistics management: A case study of the earthquake in Haiti

Heterogeneity and spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of regional emergency logistics response capacity: a case of China

Public emergencies have surged worldwide, highlighting the critical role of emergency logistics in disaster relief. This study evaluates the heterogeneity and spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of regional emergency logistics response capacity in China using the entropy-weighted TOPSIS method, Dagum Gini coefficient, kernel density estimation, and Markov chain analysis. The emergency logistics response capacities of 30 provinces and four major economic regions (Eastern, Central, Western, Northeastern) were assessed from 2012 to 2021. Key findings reveal: (1) Provincial emergency logistics response capacities improved significantly nationwide, yet regional imbalances remain pronounced. (2) Regional heterogeneity expanded, driven primarily by inter-regional disparities. (3) Temporal analysis shows steady growth across all economic regions without polarization, with the Eastern region achieving the highest mean capacity and growth rate. (4) Spatial evolution demonstrates continuity, as Markov chain analysis reveals gradual transitions between adjacent capacity levels but limited leapfrog development. Spatial factors exert dual effects: proximity to high-capacity regions facilitates upgrades for moderate-level areas, yet suppresses low capacity regions. These findings emphasize persistent structural gaps in infrastructure, resource allocation, and governance.

Nursing Students' Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Regarding Disaster Preparedness: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background

Nations are considered to be within at hazard of crises, which create greater challenges for healthcare systems and healthcare workers. Nursing staff and student nurse play a critical role in responding to disasters, and having knowledge and a skill on disasters preparedness is crucial. The aim of the current study was to investigate the nursing students' knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding disaster preparedness.

Methods

A cross-sectional study included a sample of 206 nursing students at College of Applied Medical Sciences in Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia. Undergraduate students from all years were asked to complete an online questionnaire on knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding disaster preparedness.

Results

The results/findings showed that more than two thirds of the participants had adequate knowledge (69%) and positive attitude (72%) regarding disaster preparedness; however, most of them had inadequate practice (84%). There were statistically significant relations between nursing students' knowledge and their GPA (p = 0.003), students' attitude and their gender (p = 0.014), and students' practice and their age (p = 0.008). Moreover, nursing students' knowledge was positively correlated with their attitude (r = 0.194).

Conclusion and Recommendations

Most of participated students had adequate knowledge and a positive attitude toward disaster preparedness; most of them had inadequate practice. Continuing education and training of student nurse on disaster preparedness is critical to enhance their knowledge and practices; and to be proficient in preparation for and management of any potential disasters or risks. The findings of the current study offer data that would help in the creation of educational policies for student nurse about disaster preparedness.

Medical disaster response: A critical analysis of the 2010 Haiti earthquake

Introduction

On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Republic of Haiti. The human cost was enormous-an estimated 316,000 people were killed, and a further 300,000 were injured. The scope of the disaster was matched by the scope of the response, which remains the largest multinational humanitarian response to date. An extensive scoping review of the relevant literature was undertaken, to identify studies that discussed the civilian and military disaster relief efforts. The aim was to highlight the key-lessons learned, that can be applied to future disaster response practise.

Methods

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews guidance was followed. Seven scientific databases were searched, using consistent search terms-followed by an analysis of the existent Haitian literature. This process was supplemented by reviewing available grey literature. A total of 2,671 articles were reviewed, 106 of which were included in the study. In-depth analysis was structured, by aligning data to 12 key-domains, whilst also considering cross-sector interaction (Civilian-Civilian, Military-Military, and Civilian-Military). Dominant themes and lessons learned were identified and recorded in an online spreadsheet by an international research team. This study focuses on explicitly analysing the medical aspects of the humanitarian response.

Results

An unpreceded collaborative effort between non-governmental organisations, international militaries, and local stakeholders, led to a substantial number of disaster victims receiving life and limb-saving care. However, the response was not faultless. Relief efforts were complicated by large influxes of inexperienced actors, inadequate preliminary needs assessments, a lack of pre-existing policy regarding conduct and inter-agency collaboration, and limited consideration of post-disaster redevelopment during initial planning. Furthermore, one critical theme that bridged all aspects of the disaster response, was the failure of the international community to ensure Haitian involvement.

Conclusions

No modern disaster has yet been as devastating as the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Given the ongoing climate crisis, as well as the risks posed by armed conflict-this will not remain the case indefinitely. This systematic analysis of the combined civilian and military disaster response, offers vital evidence for informing future medical relief efforts-and provides considerable opportunity to advance knowledge pertaining to disaster response.

Last mile delivery in logistics and supply chain management: a bibliometric analysis and future directions

Purpose

The main objective of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review (SLR) and structured insight into last mile delivery, ultimately identifying gaps in current knowledge and proposing a framework for future research direction in terms of sustainability in the area.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper identifies and synthesizes information from academic journals and examines “Journals and Publishing place,” “Geographic location,” “Year of Publication,” “University and Author Affiliation,” “Themes and Sub-themes,” “Theory,” “Research Design, Methods and Area” and “Industry Involvement.” A collection of online databases from 2005 to 2020 were explored, using the keywords “Last mile delivery,” “Last mile logistics,” “Last mile transportation,” “Last mile fulfillment,” “Last mile operations” and “Last mile distribution” in their title and/or abstract and/or keywords. Accordingly, a total of 281 journal articles were found in this discipline area, and data were derived from a succession of variables.

Findings

There has been significant growth in published articles concerning last mile delivery over the last 15 years (2005–2020). An in-depth review of the literature shows five dimensions of the last mile: last mile delivery, transportation, operations, distribution and logistics. Each of these dimensions is interrelated and possess clustered characteristics. For instance, last mile operations, last mile transportation and last mile delivery are operational, whereas last mile distribution is tactical, and last mile logistics possess strategic characteristics. The findings also indicate that even though the sustainability concept can be incorporated into all levels of the last mile, the current literature landscape mainly concentrates on the operational level.

Research limitations/implications

This review is limited to academic sources available from Emerald Insight, Science Direct, Taylor and Francis, Springer, MDPI and IEEE containing the mentioned keywords in the title and/or abstract/or keywords. Furthermore, only papers from high-quality, peer-reviewed journals were evaluated. Other sources such as books and conference papers were not included.

Practical implications

This study dissects last mile delivery to produce a framework that captures and presents its complex characteristics and its interconnectedness with various related components. By analyzing last mile delivery in its entirety, the framework also helps practitioners pinpoint which levels of last mile delivery (operation, tactical or strategic) they can incorporate the concept of sustainability.

Originality/value

The research findings enrich the contemporary literature landscape and future work by providing a conceptual framework that incorporates the “economic,” “environmental” and “social” pillars of sustainability in all dimensions of the last mile delivery.

Establishing a Multidisciplinary Framework for an Emergency Food Supply System Using a Modified Delphi Approach

A scientific food emergency supply system is helpful for assuring food supplies continuity, improving response efficiency, and reducing disaster losses. However, the framework for a food emergency supply system is currently an understudied area in emergency management post-disaster. In this study, a comprehensive literature review of major databases was performed to identify potential indicators for the emergency food supply system, followed by a two-round modified Delphi with a multidisciplinary expert panel (n = 17) to verify the proposed framework. The effective response rate of questionnaires ranged from 94.4% (17/18) to 100% (17/17) and the authority coefficient of experts was 0.88, indicating high positivity and reliability of the experts. Furthermore, the p-values of Kendall’s W were < 0.01 and the Cronbach’s α were > 0.7 for all domains and indicators, indicating a high reliability and validity for the proposed framework. Finally, a consensus was reached on all eight domains and 81 indicators. In conclusion, this study introduced and verified a multidisciplinary framework for the food emergency supply system, which could provide a theoretical basis for emergency responders to make corresponding commands and decisions post-disaster.

Benchmarking the outsourcing factors of third-party logistics services selection: analysing influential strength and building a sustainable decision model

Purpose

Outsourcings always affect crucial supply chain functions concerning flexibility and cost. During the decision to outsource and consider third-party logistics service provider selection, decision-makers need to pay more attention to certain critical outsourcing factors such as coordination, integration and cooperation as these key factors are essential to improve overall supply chain performance. The main purpose of this work is to identify the inter-relations among outsourcing decision factors to highlight the most important and influential factors that should be considered and carefully thought through when making outsourcing sustainable decisions.

Design/methodology/approach

A two-phased methodology has been used in this study. In the first phase, outsourcing decision factors are identified from existing literature and validated by decision-makers from industry and academia. To understand the influential strength and build a sustainable model, the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method is used. A courier company in the UAE is considered for implementation.

Findings

All identified and validated factors are segregated into two categories (cause and effect). The result shows that the most influential factors are developing strategic alliances, uncertainty and risk mitigation and deficiency of internal resources for a service.

Practical implications

There are several insights for industry managers and practitioners. The results of the study may help practitioners and logistics managers to make the logistics service sustainable and more efficient for businesses.

Originality/value

This study focusses on a courier company to understand the interdependencies among outsourcing decision factors; this is unique in this field of literature.

Identifying Challenges and Improvement Approaches for More Efficient Procurement Coordination in Relief Supply Chains

Coordinating humanitarian organizations in the procurement of urgently needed relief items is complex and characterized by decentralization and isolated decision-making. The decentralized coordination of associated tasks often results in the duplication of efforts and redundant/incorrect relief items supplies into single disaster regions, having negative impacts on the most vulnerable ones. This paper devotes attention to the challenges that exist in the coordination of procurement activities in relief supply chains and asks for improvement approaches to facilitate more efficient demand satisfaction in disaster situations. Therefore, the authors apply multiple case study research including expert interviews with procurement agents and heads of logistics from international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), humanitarian start-ups and military logistics centers. Results indicate that a lack of incentives to cooperate, poor communication, unclear division of competences and noncompliance to standards and regulations constitute substantial challenges in procurement coordination. Moreover, expert interview results show that social media integration, procurement flexibility, cluster and collaborative coordination have potential to support improving the coordination of NGOs’ procurement activities. By presenting several theoretical propositions, this paper complements already existing literature and provides a reference point for future research. Practitioners can benefit from findings as they are provided with a guide that allows redesigning certain processes in procurement coordination.

Service supply chain: from bibliometric analysis to content analysis, current research trends and future research directions

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to carry out the systematic literature review, bibliometric analysis and content analysis of extant literature of service supply chain (SSC).

Design/methodology/approach

Systematic literature review (SLR) technique was used for identifying the research papers. In the first step after reading titles, abstracts and keywords and, full-length articles wherever required, papers not related to SSC were removed. In second steps papers were read more critically and papers not related to SSC were removed. Finally on 502 papers bibliometric and content analysis was further carried out. Content analysis was based on the clusters formed by bibliographic coupling. Further, content analysis of the recent articles revealed the current research trends and research gaps.

Findings

This paper identified the six existing research diversifications in SSC as (1) logistics SSC, (2) model, framework and conceptual papers, (3) third-party logistics service providers, (4) articles from various perspective, (5) measurement of quality and performance on services and (6) impact of adoption of technology, cooperation and branding on logistics service providers. Further, six future research directions are also provided.

Practical implications

This research provides a clear view of the progression of publication, research diversification, research themes of six identified clusters, sub-themes of clusters and content analysis of each cluster. Content analysis of recent articles reveals the current research trend and future research directions.

Originality/value

This is a first of its kind of study which presents the diversification of research areas within SSC, bibliometric analysis, content analysis and provides actionable future research direction.

Benchmarks for INGOs’ effective responses during COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose

This paper aims to formulate COVID-19 benchmarks that international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) have considered to recover from the sudden stopping of operations swiftly and consequences of COVID-19 pandemic; thus, to move forward toward readiness for both, the unpredictable spreading or disappearing of the virus (case of INGOs operating in Jordan).

Design/methodology/approach

This exploratory research has been informed by the broader social constructivism paradigm and the basics of grounded theory method to identify the common themes. Six semistructured interviews have been conducted with INGOs’ leaders. The findings have been categorized, triangulated and prioritized toward the final identification of benchmarks.

Findings

Seven COVID-19 benchmarks for INGOs’ effective responses during COVID-19 pandemic have been proposed, comprising of (1) donors’ policies and regulations, (2) needs, expectations and relevancy, (3) coordination, (4) staff management, (5) business continuation plans, (6) balanced short-term and long-term planning and (7) permanent adoption of successful modalities.

Social implications

INGOs play a vital role in the lives of vulnerable people around the world through their international development and aid (IDA) projects. However, the restrictions of movements associated with COVID-19 pandemic drive more burden on these communities and interrupted their access to assistance and support. This paper helps to sustain the crucial support of INGOs to those people who need it.

Originality/value

COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted the implementation of IDA projects, which added further obstacles toward the achievement of quality implementation of these projects. The proposed COVID-19 benchmarks help INGOs to overcome the consequences of pandemic on the near longer-term alike.

The Maturity of Humanitarian Logistics against Recurrent Crises

This paper provides a framework to analyze the maturity of humanitarian logistics systems to face crisis situations related to recurrent events, and thus to identify the main areas of action and the community needs in terms of crisis logistics planning. First, the main notions of humanitarian logistics systems planning, and the theoretical contribution of maturity models are presented. Second, a maturity model for humanitarian logistics systems is proposed and the main categories of elements defining maturity extracted from literature. Then, the methodology to define the main elements of the maturity model via evidence is presented. This methodology combines a literature overview, a documentary analysis, and the development of three case studies, two located in Colombia and one in Peru. The main elements that characterize capability maturity model in humanitarian logistics systems facing recurrent crises are identified, from which the administration of donations, design of a distribution network, and the choice of suppliers are highlighted. The practical implications of the framework are proposed to allow its use to anticipate humanitarian logistics system for future crises. The framework allowed a first analysis guide and will be further extended.