Humanitarian Operations and Supply Chain Management

Abstract

The need for humanitarian assistance is documented in the news on a daily basis. Functioning supply chains are a critical factor in providing disaster relief and humanitarian aid to people in need. Therefore, the humanitarian sector has developed organizations, processes, procedures, and tools that support the specific situation facing this sector, which is in several ways different from a commercial setting. This chapter discusses some challenges of humanitarian operations and supply chain management (HumOSCM) for humanitarian assistance, provides an overview, and lays out some good practices and recent developments of HumOSCM. Better scholarship and practice of HumOSCM will contribute to solving grand challenges as conveyed in the Sustainable Development Goals.