An efficient humanitarian inventory control model and emergency logistics system plays a crucial role in maintaining reliable flow of vital supplies to the victims located in the shelters and minimizing the impacts of the unforeseen disruptions that can occur. This system should not only allow the efficient usage and distribution of emergency supplies but should also offer the ability to be int...

In July 2010, Pakistan suffered nationwide floods after unprecedented monsoon rains overwhelmed the Indus basin. The ensuing floods claimed 1985 lives, injured 2946 people and affected over 20.2 million people. Seventy-eight out of 121 districts were affected and at one stage one-fifth of the country's land was inundated with water. Indiscriminate damage was caused to housing, educational and h...

The growth of the humanitarian aid industry has led to the proliferation of relief programs and the rapid rise in the number of relief personnel working in the field. One major necessity in developing successful international programs is appropriately trained field personnel. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the educational practice and training methods for field workers by non-governm...

Disaster management information systems for international humanitarian relief are developed in contexts involving local, national and inter-governmental organizations together with local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs). While the multi-organizational nature of disaster response is known to create challenges for information systems development, to date, less attention has...

The landmark Humanitarian Response Review, commissioned by the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator in 2005, has catalyzed recent reforms in disaster response through the Inter-Agency Standing Committee. These reforms include a "cluster lead" approach to sectoral responsibilities and the strengthening of humanitarian coordination. Clinical medicine, public health, and disaster incident m...

The global response to the tsunami disaster in south Asia on 26 December 2004 has been overwhelming. Approximately US$ 6 billion have been pledged in aid by citizens and governments, and authorities have offered military assistance and debt relief (W1). This outpouring of goodwill reflects the universality of the humanitarian impulse: an innate, altruistic urge to assist fellow human beings who...

This paper presents a multi-objective model for location-transportation problem under uncertainty that has been developed to respond to crisis. In the proposed model, humanitarian aid distribution centers (HADC), the number and location of them, the amount of relief goods stored in distribution centers, the amount of relief goods sent to the disaster zone, the number of injured people transferr...

Adele Harmer is a Research Officer with HPG. Andre Griekspoor (Emergencies and Humanitarian Action Department, WHO) is an adviser on health issues (Southern Africa study and main report). Fiona Watson (NutritionWorks) is an independent consultant on food security (Southern Africa study and main report). Mark Bradbury is an independent consultant. He was team leader for the field study on Southe...

BACKGROUND The health needs of children and adolescents in humanitarian emergencies are critical to the success of relief efforts and reduction in mortality. Measles has been one of the major causes of child deaths in humanitarian emergencies and further contributes to mortality by exacerbating malnutrition and vitamin A deficiency. Here, we review measles vaccination activities in humanitarian...