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Background: The study focuses on the challenges encountered during the distribution of food and face-mask items during the first COVID-19 lock-down by various relief supply chain actors.

Methods: Data were collected from forty (40) relief actors through online (via Zoom and telephones) and face-to-face interviews, between January 2021 to March 2021. Data was coded based on per-determined themes after which it was further processed using Atlas ti. v7.57 to generate patterns.

Results: The study established challenges related to needs identification, procurement, warehousing, transportation, handling, beneficiary verification, and last-mile distribution. Additionally, the media and politics coupled with the emergence of new actors and governance issues were part of the challenges identified.

Conclusions: The identified challenges were internal and external to the relief supply chain; hence actors could have control over some while others were beyond their control. The findings could inform practitioners and policymakers on what challenges are likely to affect their operations, especially during a pandemic, and design appropriate coping mechanisms.

Research indicates a significant risk of economic crime associated with post-disaster funding. The purpose of this paper is to assess the characteristics of post-disaster funding that make it susceptible to the risk of economic crime and to analyse how the statutory and regulatory disaster risk management instruments of South Africa aim to manage post-disaster events.

This paper uses secondary sources such as, but not limited to, legislation, institutional reports, textbooks and peer-reviewed academic journal articles.

Post-disaster funding is inherently susceptible to economic crime due to characteristics identified such as time pressure; substantial inflow of money, goods and services; inadequate needs assessment, large-scale reconstruction and the involvement of contractors or suppliers; power imbalance; and the responsibility of governments. The Disaster Management Act and National Disaster Management Framework provide an extensive regulatory framework for mitigating post-disaster funding risks by attempting to find a balance between quick aid distribution and financial controls. This paper finds that even though South Africa is known to have some of the best disaster risk management laws, the pervasive nature of the characteristics could still render post-disaster funding structures susceptible to the risk of economic crime.

There is limited scientific research on this topic. The expected prevalence of future disasters requires the regulatory and legislative disaster risk management instruments to evolve concomitantly. Research on this topic must continue to ensure that risks associated with post-disaster funding and its susceptibility to economic crime can be mitigated as far as possible.

The purpose of this paper is to explore barriers and benefits of establishing relationships between humanitarian organizations (HOs) and logistics service providers (LSPs) in order to improve humanitarian disaster relief operations (DROs). The perceptions of a variety of actors are explored to determine key factors which influence collaboration.

This study comprises of qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches. A comprehensive literature review was undertaken alongside an online survey with a variety of respondents. Descriptive statistics, data visualization and qualitative data analysis were implemented to analyse survey results. A follow-up survey and interviews with LSPs validated the results.

The research presents the opinions of a variety of actors involved in DROs and reveals barriers which affect HO/LSP collaboration. Explanations for these barriers and possible solutions to mitigate them are disclosed. The findings also uncover gaps between research and practice; providing new insights into behaviour in the humanitarian field.

The authors provide an in-depth understanding of the barriers and challenges faced in this field and suggest a reevaluation of corporate decision making in order to increase trust between LSPs and HOs. The authors identify future research topics including the impact of donors and military organizations on HO decision making, and analysis of variables which may affect the formation of collaborative partnerships.

The authors introduce a unique empirical insight into the perspectives of HOs, LSPs and academics and offers suggestions for mitigating the numerous barriers associated with successful collaborative partnerships between HOs and LSPs.

The a priori identification and development of army personnel competencies are necessary to enable effective and efficient responses to rapidly changing climate conditions. Accordingly, this study aims to identify the performance requirements of a military flood responder and the competencies (knowledge, skills and abilities) required to perform it.

Using an abductive approach, the authors conducted both secondary and primary research to generate a validated framework of performance criteria and competencies for army personnel responding to floods. This literature review integrated both the peer-reviewed academic literature and public sector grey literature. Using the critical incident technique, the authors then conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) who had previously been tasked with flood response operations. Participants were asked about the tasks required while conducting flood response operations. Interview transcripts were then content analysed to identify themes regarding those tasks, and the competencies needed to perform those tasks were then extracted and contrasted with the literature review findings. Inter-rater reliability for the analysis was established via iterative discussion between the two co-authors.

The primary data reinforced and expanded the list of performance expectations that the authors deductively identified from the integrated literature review, adding granularity to each. It also identified competencies (including both hard and soft skills) and highlighted previously neglected contextual antecedents of military flood response effectiveness.

though knowledge saturation was achieved from the 15 interviews conducted, further research with larger samples could more deeply ground the evidence discovered in this study. Nevertheless, the competencies identified in this paper could serve as a starting guide to staffing and/or training interventions targeted at improving these competencies for personnel responding to flood scenarios.

The theoretical findings also have immediate practical relevance to training for flood response operations. In particular, the subtle challenges in competency crossover from military operations to flood response operations may facilitate not only more efficient, targeted training (that could improve the effectiveness of army personnel involved in humanitarian roles), but could be applied to the selection of army personnel as well. This study may also help provincial/municipal operators and emergency planners by better communicating the strengths and limitations of army personnel in addressing civilian military cooperation for humanitarian operations. Thus, the findings of this research study represent an important first step in prompting attention to the strategic human resource planning studies required to make all responders more efficient and effective in their respective division of labour within the humanitarian domain.

Peering a little beyond these research findings, human-induced climate change is expected to continue increasing the frequency of such events (IPCC, 2021), and a timely, national force is likely to be increasingly required for Canadians impacted by major disasters stemming from natural hazards when local resources become overwhelmed. Yet, there is some concern from the CAF that increasing responsiveness to disaster operations will affect their military readiness (Leuprecht and Kasurak, 2020). One can indeed envision a paradox whereby the CAF is both a “force of last resort” while increasingly becoming a “first choice for domestic disaster and emergency assistance”. The practical implications from this research also suggest that military personnel, while fully capable of successfully conducting flood response operations, may become overburdened and less able to adopt yet greater capacity and training for other additional humanitarian work. Nevertheless, the competencies highlighted by participants can help inform the next flood response operation in Canada.

Most literature in the field of emergency response focuses on cooperation between civilian and military resources and other strategic-level themes. The findings address critical granularity missing at the operational and tactical levels of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief research. The authors also draw implications beyond the military context, including for local/regional governmental players (operators and emergency planners) as well as for volunteers in flood response roles.

Authorities have set up numerous security checkpoints during times of armed conflict to control the flow of commercial and humanitarian trucks into and out of areas of conflict. These security checkpoints have become highly utilized because of the complex security procedures and increased truck traffic, which significantly slow the delivery of relief aid. This paper aims to improve the process at security checkpoints by redesigning the current process to reduce processing time and relieve congestion at checkpoint entrance gates.

A decision-support tool (clearing function distribution model [CFDM]) is used to minimize the effects of security checkpoint congestion on the entire humanitarian supply network using a hybrid simulation-optimization approach. By using a business process simulation, the current and reengineered processes are both simulated, and the simulation output was used to estimate the clearing function (capacity as a function of the workload). For both the AS-IS and TO-BE models, key performance indicators such as distribution costs, backordering and process cycle time were used to compare the results of the CFDM tool. For this, the Kerem Abu Salem security checkpoint south of Gaza was used as a case study.

The comparison results demonstrate that the CFDM tool performs better when the output of the TO-BE clearing function is used.

The efforts will contribute to improving the planning of any humanitarian network experiencing congestion at security checkpoints by minimizing the impact of congestion on the delivery lead time of relief aid to the final destination.