This Grant for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) is intended to study the comparative performance of the alternative humanitarian logistic structures that emerged in response to Port au Prince earthquake. The humanitarian challenge following the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake provides important lessons that may end up serving as a watershed moment for the field of humanitarian logistics. Quite notably, while some prominent efforts experienced major delays in the distribution of supplies to the people in need, other unheralded operations did so with great efficiency. Understanding the factors that explain degree of success, and assessing the scalability of the successful ones, could open the doors to new paradigms of humanitarian logistics that overcome the kind of challenges that hampered efforts in Haiti. The project seeks answers to such important questions. In doing so, the team would build upon data collected in the first two weeks after the disaster, validate initial findings with additional data, and create the foundation for the integration of findings into models to support relief flows and operations. The main objectives are to: (1) to identify a preliminary topology, and the basic features of the alternative humanitarian logistic structures that have emerged in Haiti and in areas supporting the effort; (2) to gather insight into their level of effectiveness, positive and negative traits, manpower provided, coverage and extent of their operations, among others; (3) to gather data about the actual flows of critical and non-critical supplies, and their dynamic patterns over time; and (4) to document lessons learned, both positive and negative.
This project would provide the first systemic characterization of the alternative humanitarian logistic structures that emerge in support of relief/early recovery efforts after a major extreme event. The findings produced by such characterization would: (1) enhance theoretical understandings of organizations and organizing in extreme event environments; and (2) set the stage for advanced modeling of these various approaches. Since improving humanitarian relief operations can reduce human suffering and loss of life in disasters, solving these problems is of national and international import. Specifically, the project will: (1) promote multidisciplinary collaboration on the humanitarian logistics problem; (2) integrate students to a multidisciplinary and international research process, with a particular emphasis on recruiting underrepresented students; (3) generate findings that will be integrated into disaster and logistics courses; (4) generate findings with applied benefits that will be broadly disseminated to organizations engaged in the practice of humanitarian logistics, including those stakeholders in Haiti.
This project defines a typology of the humanitarian logistic structures identified during the field work conducted by the research team immediately after the Port au Prince earthquake of January 12th, 2010. In total, more than ten trips were made to Haiti, Dominican Republic, and other centers of the Haitian Diaspora such as Miami. The field work conducted revealed the existence of alternative post-disaster humanitarian logistic (PD-HL) structures that emerge in support of relief/early recovery efforts after a major extreme event. The research team, including principal investigators as well as graduate and undergraduate students, assessed the relative performance of these PD-HL models in terms of delivering relief aid to the people in need; and, identified the causes that explain the observed differences. Although there is a continuum of possibilities, the relevant operations could be exemplified with three types. At one end of the spectrum, there are the operations performed by an agency foreign (outsider) to the area, with little or no integration with the locals. This case is labeled as Agency Centric Effort (ACE) as the operation is based on the internal capacities of the group. At the other end, there is the case of networks of individuals/groups that are part of both the community impacted by the disaster and of a larger network that extends to other communities, e.g., a religious group. This type is referred to as a Collaborative Aid Network (CAN). In between these cases there are endless possibilities depending upon to what extent and on what form, they integrate with the locals. To refer to these cases, the research team uses the term Partially Integrated Effort (PIE). These structures differ to the extent to which they are integrated with the local social networks and structures during the relief effort. Representative examples were analyzed to illustrate the inherent strengths and weaknesses and reach conclusions of general applicability. In order to increase the robustness of the analyses, the researchers complemented the analyses with discussions of "comparables," i.e., cases that shed additional light into the relief effort. In the case of the ACEs, the discussion centers on the United Nations (UN) and the United States military. The performance of the PIEs is exemplified by the joint effort of the Dominican Red Cross and Haitian Red Cross, the Operation Friendly Hand and the Civil Defense, while the Servicio Social de Iglesias (SSID) and Help Platform for Haiti (Plataforma de Ayuda a Haití) are used to illustrate the work done by the CANs. Based on the chief findings concerning the strengths and weaknesses of these structures to respond to disasters of various sizes, the researchers made a number of policy recommendations to maximize the effectiveness of relief distribution efforts. In doing so, the team specifically analyzed the impacts of the fundamental differences between disasters and catastrophes on the nature of the humanitarian logistics effort. The analyses are based on dozens of interviews, both formal and informal, conducted with the individuals directly involved in the relief effort, and, complemented with critical analyses of news accounts, and technical reports produced by the agencies involved. From the field work and analyses, the research team has produced reports, academic articles, as well as, a compendium of news articles and multimedia (pictures and videos) from the disaster area.
