Food aid distribution during disaster response and short-term recovery: enhancing performance of heterogeneous humanitarian logistics structures

McNeil, SueHumanitarian logistics is the lifeline between food and those impacted by armed conflicts and natural hazards in developing countries. Those impacted may also experience “doble afectación” as a result of displacement due to armed conflicts and the exposure to one or more disaster events at the same time. Such is the Colombian situation where in 2013 more than 4 million internally displaced persons from the armed conflict, combined with at least 3.5 million impacted by the 2010 and 2011 floods created a population group concurrently impacted by man-made and natural disasters. When self-evaluating the performance of food aid distribution, the humanitarian agencies in Colombia acknowledge dissatisfaction when it comes to assuring minimal food security levels to those impacted by disasters during the response and short–term recovery phases of disaster management. A major challenge is that the humanitarian action that assists each group of impacted people operates separately ignoring opportunities for gaining efficiencies in the food aid distribution process from operating synergistically, either among actors from the same humanitarian agency or combined. This research recognizes the heterogeneity of the humanitarian logistics structures that orchestrate food aid distribution, but hypothesizes that such heterogeneity may be a link to improving the performance of disaster response operations. Based on concepts widely discussed by scholars in humanitarian and commercial logistics, this research identifies typologies of humanitarian logistics structures that contribute to closing a performance gap in the context of orchestrating food aid distribution using the supply chains identified as well. Following a new approach to humanitarian logistics modeling from the literature, this research assesses the performance of recommended food aid distribution policies, as determined by both operational and social considerations. Using formulations that realistically represent some of the challenges of the humanitarian action and actual data collected though fieldwork, this research focuses on the humanitarian logistics strategies that contribute to minimizing the human suffering of those impacted by the armed conflict and natural disasters in Colombia.University of Delaware, School of Public Policy and AdministrationPh.D