The funding—Humanitarian supply chain interface

Abstract

Humanitarian organizations (HOs) supply goods and services to people in need, using funds provided by donors supporting their mission. Funding systems, funds, and their characteristics have a very strong impact on the success of HOs in fulfilling their and donor needs. A wide variety of articles exists on humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM) and on managing and raising donations. However, a limited, yet growing, branch of literature explores topics in the new field of the interface between funding and HSC. This article provides an overview of research in this field and tries to capture how it has been developing. We achieve this overview through structuring the core issues discussed in the literature into a funding—humanitarian supply chain (HSC) interface framework. The framework leads to the identification of research gaps and promising areas for future research. The article raises awareness of the importance of carefully evaluating decisions related to funding systems and provides researchers and practitioners interested in this topic with guidance with respect to the core issues to be considered.