A community-based approach to supply chain design

Abstract

The role of beneficiaries in the humanitarian supply chain is highlighted in the imperative to meet their needs but disputed in terms of their actual decision-making and purchasing power. This article discusses the use of a beneficiary-focused, communitybased approach in the case of a post-crisis housing reconstruction programme. In the community-based approach, beneficiaries become active members of the humanitarian supply chain. Implications of this community-based approach are discussed in the light of supply chain design and aid effectiveness.

Local Resources and Procurement Practices in Humanitarian Supply Chains: An Empirical Examination of Large‐Scale House Reconstruction Projects

“…Numerous phase models have been proposed in literature, varying in level of detail as well as in their philosophy of whether the phases should be seen as a linear process, a learning loop, or a model with overlapping processes (Tatham & Kovács, 2007;Kovács et al, 2010). There are some interesting distinctions between the phases from a supply chain perspective.…”

“…By incorporating local labor, in both programs cost improvements were realized (Kovács et al, 2010), resulting in a positive impulse to the local economy. This was particularly the case in the Kosovo program where the use of local labor was the main precursor for the privately financed housing reconstruction.…”

“…Assisted self-help could comprise unpaid village labor teams as well as the more typical paid mobile teams of craftspeople. (Kovács, Matopoulos, and Hayes (2010) provide a detailed discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of these techniques. )…”

“…In addition, cash flow problems for local suppliers were reported as no payment in advance was allowed, leading to a situation in which suppliers had to raise 30-40% of the contract for advance upstream purchases. This problem was later tackled through the use of vouchers which could be exchanged for specified reconstruction materials at nominated supply locations (Kovács et al, 2010).…”

Analysis of Measures for Managing Issues in Post-Disaster Housing Reconstruction

“…Educate and provide continuous capacity training for procurement personnel on effective assessment and resourcing procedures [113,115] Enhances managerial, technical and administrative procurement skills required to reduce resourcing challenges [113,115] {Needs Assessment and planning} Assess resource requirements based on sufficient quality, availability, supply point and time of resource need [14,116] Enables identification and selection of quality, sustainable and acceptable resources for procurement [14,117]; Enables scheduled and cost-effective resource delivery [118] Engage locals in resource assessment [14] Helps to draw knowledge on locally available resources [14] Identify and mobilise for resourcing with long lead times [116] Ensures on-time delivery of resources [116]; Mitigates disruption of production process and its negative impacts on project performance [117,119,120] Map resource markets and make provision for price variations due to seasonal variations [26] and changing market conditions [35,41] Aids effective resource delivery [35] {Procurement arrangements}…”