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This study explores the critical success factors (CSFs) in humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM) by focussing on flood disaster management (FDM) in Ghana.

An in-depth semi-structured interview and questionnaire surveys in a sequential data collection approach were used to collect data from definitive stakeholders of humanitarian organisations. The data was analysed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factors analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques.

Seventy-four factors were identified as success factors of HSCM of flood disaster management. However, 41 of these factors were statistically significant and considered as critical. In descending order, these factors relate to management practices, education and training, stakeholder involvement and cooperation, infrastructure, innovation and technology, materials and resources, administrative practices, socio-cultural and economic. Whilst some factors are internal to the humanitarian organisations, others are external factors that are beyond the control of humanitarian organisations.

Even though this study offers empirical results that could guide policymakers in their decision-making about humanitarian operations, care needs to be taken since the data is within one country and within a specific disaster context – hence, policymakers need to consider the local contextual dynamics. Future studies could look at different disasters context to make a comparative analysis of various types of disaster operations.

Institutions such as World Health Organization, Red Cross organisations and UN seeking to curbs global-warming-related disasters and the reduction of the effects of flood disaster can use findings as a guide during the formulation of HSCM policies and strategies.

Unlike previous studies of humanitarian operations that focussed extensively on theoretical expositions, simulations, conceptual frameworks and models, this present study offers empirical evidence of humanitarian operations in the context of SCM. Further, by highlighting on the HSCM CSFs, this study contributes to disaster reduction and their effects on humanity in the context of FDM. This research could be used as guide by governments and FDM organisations to make informed decisions on SCM areas to focus the most during FDM.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that cause government construction projects failure in a developing economy.

The study used the sequential data collection approach through an in-depth semi-structured interview (16 participants) and questionnaire survey (230 participants) to solicit their perceptions from project management practitioners (PMP), contractors and client (government officials) about the factors that lead to Ghanaian Government construction projects. The relative importance index was used to determine the relative importance of the factors identified. This was followed by Spearman rank correlation coefficient and Kendall’s coefficient of concordance to measure the degree of agreement among the participants on their perceptions.

In total, 34 factors were identified as the main factors that lead into Ghanaian Government construction projects failure. The top ten most important factors that cause Ghanaian Government construction projects failure are: political interferences, delays in payment, partisan politics, bureaucracy, corruption, poor supervision, lack of commitment by project leaders, poor planning, starting more projects than the government can fund and change in government. The failure factors were grouped into four main themes and found that the most important failure factors are leadership. This is followed by management and administrative practices, resources and external forces, respectively.

This study is limited to only the public sector, and therefore the findings may not be applicable in the private sector.

Policy makers and construction PMP would be able to use the findings as a guide during the implementation of government projects in order to reduce and/or avoid government construction projects failure.

Construction projects failure in developing countries is high. Accordingly, the extant literature has been devoted to identifying the factors that lead to failure; however, they have mainly been discussed from a generic point of view or individual case studies. Researches that focus exclusively on government construction projects in developing countries are rare despite the dynamics in which these projects are implemented. This research extends the construction project management literature by focussing on government construction projects in a developing economy, where there are weak public institutional systems coupled with partisanship politics and bad cultural orientation towards government sector work inherited from a colonial rule.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent of failure within Ghanaian Government projects using multiple failure criteria.

This study used a sequential data collection approach by employing an in-depth semi-structured interview and questionnaire, respectively. Based on insight from the literature review, interviews were held with participants to solicit their perceptions about the failure of Ghanaian Government projects. A questionnaire was developed based on the results from the interviews in order to determine the relative importance of the various failure criteria used as the evaluation tool.

Six main criteria were identified and used as the assessment framework for Ghanaian Government project failure. The findings indicated that Ghanaian Government projects fail on all the six failure criteria; however, the extent of failure differs from criterion to criterion. The worst failure criterion is meeting the projected timescale. This is followed by cost, requirement, stakeholder satisfaction, national development and contribution to the sector where projects are implemented, respectively.

From this study, government project practitioners and policy makers will be able identify the failure areas (criteria) on which to focus during government project implementation.

Though extant literature has been devoted to the success/failure criteria, attention has not been paid to comparison of the extent of failure within these criteria in government projects. Therefore, this study extends the literature in this regard as well as government project failure literature in general.