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Inspired by a food bank distribution operation, this paper aims to study synchronized vehicle routing for equitable and effective food allocation. The primary goal is to improve operational efficiency while ensuring equitable and effective food distribution among the partner agencies.

This study introduces a multiobjective Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) model aimed at addressing the complex challenge of effectively distributing food, particularly for food banks serving vulnerable populations in low-income urban and rural areas. The optimization approach described in this paper places a significant emphasis on social and economic considerations by fairly allocating food to food bank partner agencies while minimizing routing distance and waste. To assess the performance of the approach, this paper evaluates three distinct models, focusing on key performance measures such as effectiveness, equity and efficiency. The paper conducts a comprehensive numerical analysis using randomly generated data to gain insights into the trade-offs that arise and provide valuable managerial insights for food bank managers.

The results of the analysis highlight the models that perform better in terms of equity and effectiveness. Additionally, the results show that restocking the vehicles through the concept of synchronization improves the overall quantity of food allocation to partner agencies, thereby increasing accessibility.

This paper contributes significantly to the literature on optimization approaches in the field of humanitarian logistics.

This study provides food bank managers with three different models, each with a multifaceted nature of trade-offs, to better address the complex challenges of food insecurity.

This paper contributes significantly to social responsibility by enhancing the operational efficiency of food banks, ultimately improving their ability to serve communities in need.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to propose and analyze this new variant of vehicle routing problems in nonprofit settings.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate humanitarian supply chains in the context of the Ukrainian crisis as example of complex emergency. The paper focuses on a selection of support modes: in-kind donations, cash-based assistance and local procurement.

This paper adopts a case-study approach and interpretive paradigm. Findings are based on the analysis of primary sources including interviews with three Polish humanitarian organizations, internal documents, and secondary sources such as published reports.

Findings indicate that in a middle-income urbanized country such as Ukraine non-standard modes such as cash transfer programs and local procurement can be employed, since the necessary infrastructure and market are operational. However, each mode has limitations, so they should match the local context and the needs of diverse social groups.

The findings and recommendations are specific to the case analyzed, Ukraine, and its socio-economic context. The research contributes to discussions about mode selection, stressing the links between mode, stage of the disaster response and local context.

Applying cash transfers and local procurement can reduce supply chain costs, such as transport and warehousing. Shortened supply chains enable faster responses and increased agility.

Cash transfers and procurement involve the local community and beneficiaries, and can better fulfill needs maintaining people’s dignity. However, for vulnerable groups and those in conflict zones, in-kind goods are a better option.

The author argues that the much-discussed dichotomy of cash or goods does not reflect reality; local and regional procurement should be added as important support modes in middle-income countries in crisis.

This study aims to describe the compounding factors in a complex emergency, which exacerbate a cholera epidemic among vulnerable populations due to supply chain disruptions. Basic needs such as food, medicine, water, sanitation and hygiene commodities are critical to reduce the incidence rate of cholera and control the spread of infection. Conflicts cause damage to infrastructure, displace vulnerable populations and restrict the flow of goods from both commercial and humanitarian organizations. This study assesses the underlying internal and external factors that either aggravate or mitigate the risk of a cholera outbreak in such settings, using Yemen as a case study.

This study adopts a system dynamics methodology to analyze factors that influence cholera outbreaks in the context of the Yemeni Civil War. A causal loop diagram with multiple components was constructed to represent the complexities of humanitarian situations that require critical decision-making. The model was built using data from humanitarian organizations, non-governmental organizations and practitioners, along with literature from academic sources. Variables in the model were confirmed through semi-structured interviews with a field expert.

Compounding factors that influenced the cholera outbreak in Yemen are visualized in a causal loop diagram, which can improve the understanding of relationships where numerous uncertainties exist. A strong link exists between humanitarian response and the level of infrastructure development in a country. Supply chains are affected by constraints deriving from the Yemeni conflict, further inhibiting the use of infrastructure, which limits access to basic goods and services. Aligning long-term development objectives with short-term humanitarian response efforts can create more flexible modes of assistance to prevent and control future outbreaks.

The model focuses on the qualitative aspects of system dynamics to visualize the logistics and supply chain-related constraints that impact cholera prevention, treatment and control through humanitarian interventions. The resulting causal loop diagram is bounded by the Yemen context; thus, an extension of the model adapted for other contexts is recommended for further study.

This study presents a systematic view of dynamic factors existing in complex emergencies that have cause-and-effect relationships. Several models of cholera outbreaks have been used in previous studies, primarily focusing on the modes and mechanisms of transmission throughout a population. However, such models typically do not include other internal and external factors that influence the population and context at the site of an outbreak. This model incorporates those factors from a logistics perspective to address the distribution of in-kind goods and cash and voucher assistance.

This study has been aligned with six of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), using their associated targets in the model as variables that influence the cholera incidence rate. Recognizing that the SDGs are interlinked, as are the dynamic factors in complex humanitarian emergencies, the authors have chosen to take an interdisciplinary approach to consider social, economic and environmental factors that may be impacted by this research.

This paper provides an insight into the underlying inter-relations of internal and external factors present in the context of a cholera outbreak in a complex crisis. Supply chains for food; water, sanitation and hygiene; and health products are crucial to help prevent, control and treat an outbreak. The model exposes vulnerabilities in the supply chain, which may offer guidance for decision makers to improve resilience, reduce disruptions and decrease the severity of cholera outbreaks.

Foodbank use in the UK is rising but, despite high levels of poverty, Pakistani women are less likely to use food banks than white British women. The purpose of this paper is to understand the lived experience of food in the context of poverty amongst Pakistani and white British women in Bradford, including perspectives on food aid.

A total of 16 Pakistani and white British women, recruited through community initiatives, participated in three focus groups (one interview was also held as a consequence of recruitment difficulties). Each group met for two hours aided by a moderator and professional interpreter. The transcripts were analysed thematically using a three-stage process.

Women in low-income households employed dual strategies to reconcile caring responsibilities and financial obligations: the first sought to make ends meet within household income; the second looked to outside sources of support. There was a reported near absence of food insecurity amongst Pakistani women which could be attributed to support from social/familial networks, resource management within the household, and cultural and religious frameworks. A minority of participants and no Pakistani respondents accessed charitable food aid. There were three reasons for the non-use of food aid: it was not required because of resource management strategies within the household and assistance from familial/social networks; it was avoided out of shame; and knowledge about its existence was poor.

This case study is the first examination of varying experiences of food insecurity amongst UK white British and Pakistani women. Whilst the sample size is small, it presents new evidence on perceptions of food insecurity amongst Pakistani households and on why households of varying ethnicities do not use food aid.

This paper shows the accounting, accountability and calculative practices associated with emergency food allocations by the City of Turin through a program to feed the vulnerable during COVID-19.

This is a single case study framed by Foucault's governmentality concept. The data was collected through interviews with key institutional actors and triangulated against decrees, circulars, ordinances and other publicly available documents.

The accounting tools of governmentality are always incomplete. Sometimes unique situations and crises help us to revise and improve the tools we have. Other times, they demand entirely new tools.

Accounting needs both things to count and a context to count them. In the case of food assistance, what is counted is people. In Turin's case, many people had never been counted – either because there was no need or because they were unaccounted for by choice. Now, the government was accountable for the welfare of both. Thus, new classification systems emerged, as did organisational and accounting solutions.

Although the accounting-for-disasters literature is diverse, studies too often favour the macro social, economic and political issues surrounding crises, neglecting the micro issues associated with governmentality and calculative practices.

The aim of this article was to present a retrospective assessment of the intellectual structure of private agricultural and food standards research in global trade. This study was motivated by the increasing role of standards and certifications in governing global agricultural and food trade.

The current investigation was carried out with bibliometric methods using VOSviewer software. Techniques such as citation, co-citation, keyword co-occurrence, keyword evolution and co-authorship analyses were performed to tackle the research questions. Articles were extracted from Scopus database for the period 1998–2022 (30th August 2022) with selected keywords (“Private food standard*” OR “food standard*” OR “agri-food standard*” AND “agri*” OR “agro*” OR “farm*” OR “food*” AND “international trade” OR “global trade” OR “international business”) along certain filters (subject – Economics and Business management: language – English: Document – article and review articles and source – journals).

The results show that the intellectual structure of private agricultural and food standards research in global trade has evolved around five clusters, namely: (1) the political economy of food standards, (2) food standards and their challenges in global trade, (3) food standards and integration into value chains, (4) food standards and market access and (5) food standards and exports from developing countries. However, the authors found the research gaps in each of the thematic clusters.

The main limitation of this study is that the authors focused their attention on certain aspects of bibliometric review, such as the intellectual structure of the field, the citation analysis and the collaboration network. Future research could attempt to explore new field development through bibliographic coupling and deepening of conceptual structure using content analysis by incorporating the research methods used in the respective studies.

The emerging research areas in private agricultural and food standards in global trade are related to topics on food quality, sustainable development, genetically modified organisms, World Trade Organization, tariff structure, trade agreements, food industry and European Union. However, there is less research and little collaboration between Africa and developed countries. For example, Africa's total publications were (15), while the US had (46), China (15), Belgium (23), Germany (27), Italy (32) and the UK (24).

There are limited studies that have conducted a retrospective evaluation of the intellectual structure of private agricultural and food standards research in the global trade using bibliometric analysis. The present investigation is novel in identifying the thematic research clusters, emerging issues and future research directions. This is more important to developing countries as their agricultural produce face challenges to access markets of the developed world.

Attaining the Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) of zero hunger continues to be a challenge in most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. However, financial inclusion is seen as a potential pathway for reducing food insecurity among poor households. Mobile money is a financial inclusion instrument that is easily accessible to poor households and has the potential to increase the level of financial inclusion. This paper contributes to the literature by examining the determinants of mobile money adoption, its effects on household food security and the choice of coping strategies in Burundi, a post-conflict and fragile country.

Using survey data that involved 860 households in Burundi, we adopted the Household Hunger Scale (HHS) developed under the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project to measure household food security. We further employ the endogenous switching regression treatment effects model for ordered outcomes and the multivariate probit model to achieve our aims.

The results of our study reveal that the adoption of mobile money is influenced by factors such as gender, marital status, age, formal education, membership in a social network, area of residence and access to a tarred road network. Additionally, the food security status of a household was determined by marital status, formal education, social network membership, access to tarred roads, off-farm income, access to credit and land tenure security. We confirm that mobile money adoption has a significantly positive effect on the food security status of households with heterogeneity in gender and area of residence. We also find that mobile money adoption reduces the likelihood of households adopting consumption-related coping strategies.

The promotion of mobile money should, therefore, be included in Burundi’s national food security policies.

This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the effect of mobile money adoption on household food security and the choice of coping strategies in a post-conflict context.

The purpose of this paper is to open up new lines of research into the engagement of corporations during humanitarian crises. The paper provides an introduction to core concepts in the delivery of humanitarian assistance, as well as a comprehensive overview of when, why, how, and to what effect corporations engage in humanitarian action.

Building on extant literature and policy reports, the paper synthesizes concepts and insights to map the interdisciplinary field of research on corporate engagement in humanitarian action.

The paper systematically reviews and describes different dimensions of corporate engagement for delivering humanitarian action and explains key complications that inspire new research questions. In particular, the paper highlights challenges associated with getting corporations to engage in humanitarian action; challenges associated with ensuring effective corporate engagement; and challenges associated with ensuring ethical engagement.

By raising new questions about corporate engagement in humanitarian action, this paper develops an original and positive research agenda for international business, management research, and related fields.

The study examined the influence of humanitarian organizations’ culture and financial service providers’ technology readiness on the usage of digital cash-based assistance by humanitarian organizations, the influence of Humanitarian Organization Culture on Financial providers’ technology readiness and the mediating role of financial service providers’ technology readiness on the relationship between the culture in humanitarian organizations and their usage of digital cash-based assistance.

A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was used. The target population consisted of humanitarian organizations that were members of the Uganda Cash Consortium (UCC). The research hypotheses were tested using SMART PLS version 4.

The culture in humanitarian organizations and financial service providers’ technology readiness positively influences the usage of digital cash-based assistance by humanitarian organizations during humanitarian crises, and humanitarian organizations’ culture positively influences financial service providers’ technology readiness. Financial service providers’ technology readiness fully mediates the relationship between the culture of humanitarian organizations and the usage of digital cash-based assistance by humanitarian organizations during humanitarian crises.

The study mainly focuses on culture in humanitarian organizations and financial service providers’ technology readiness when examining the usage of digital cash-based assistance during humanitarian crises. Further, financial service providers’ technology readiness is examined using a humanitarian organization, financial service provider and beneficiary/persons of concern’s point of view rather than the government’s point of view.

Research examining determinants for digital cash-based assistance usage in humanitarian crises is scarce. Further, empirical research examining the influence of the humanitarian organizations’ culture and financial service providers’ technology readiness in promoting the usage of digital cash-based assistance in humanitarian crises, the impact of humanitarian organizations’ culture on financial service providers’ technology readiness and the mediating role of financial service providers’ technology readiness on the relationship between the culture of humanitarian organizations and usage of digital cash-based assistance in humanitarian crises are non-existent. The majority of research and grey literature focuses on how digital cash-based transfers can be used to enhance financial inclusion in refugee contexts.

The purpose is to chart the negotiations on the issue of food security which was identified as a non-trade concern by the Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) and how developing Members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) suggested that that concern should be addressed.

The history of negotiations at the WTO is examined through the lens of official documents submitted during various phases of negotiations since 1996 beginning with the Analysis and Information Exchange process to the Doha Round up to the latest Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi in February 2024.

The negotiations have yet to complete despite beginning over 20 years ago. The focus moved since 2008 to look at specific issues which were addressed at a number of Ministerial Conferences but the latest of these indicate that an answer can only be found in the re-negotiation of the AOA as a whole.

By focusing on official documents, the rich literature on food security has not been addressed.

The piece concludes by looking at issues which need to be resolved ahead of agreement on overall reform and suggests solutions for example in the area of safeguards and public stockholding for food security purposes.

The focus almost exclusively on official (and public) documents during the discussion is noteworthy. It also confirms that the WTO is not really that different from its predecessor - the GATT - which took nearly 50 years to reach AOA.