Humanitarian supply chains (HSCs) contribute significantly to achieving effective and rapid responses to natural and man-made disasters. Though humanitarian organizations have during the last decades made considerable efforts to improve the response to crises in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, HSCs are still faced with so many challenges, one of which is the incorporation of sustainability dimensions (economic, social and environmental) in the management of their supply chains. In the literature, some authors have highlighted that the planning and achievement of sustainability performance objectives in humanitarian operations is hindered by the lack of decision support systems (DSS). Therefore, this paper proposes a multi-objective Master Planning DSS for managing sustainable HSCs. This Master Planning DSS includes: (1) the definition of a set of metrics for measuring the performance of a sustainable HSC; (2) an algorithm to solve the multi-objective problem; and (3) a Master Planning mathematical model to support the tactical planning of the sustainable HSC. Using the information gathered from field research and the literature, an illustrative numerical example is presented to demonstrate the implementation and utility of the proposed DSS. The results show that the order in which the three sustainability dimensions (economic, social and environmental) are prioritized has some impact on the performance measures. Therefore, it is important to fix a tolerance that would enable to obtain an acceptable balance (trade-off) between the three sustainability objectives, in line with the prioritization choice of the decision maker. The paper can be accessed via the following link: https://rdcu.be/NUkB as a part of Springer’s SharedIt Initiative. @en

The Humanitarian Supply Chain (HSC) is key to successful relief operations. Today, HSC managers faces many challenges: (1) the increasing gap between funding and appeals; (2) donors ask for more transparency and accountability; (3) the growing pressure to switch to sustainable development. To maintain a competitive position (order winner) in the near future, considering sustainability becomes a fundamental addition to the established effectiveness and efficiency measures. In literature, the lack of Decision Support Systems for planning and achieving of sustainability objectives is described as barrier to sustainable humanitarian operations. We propose a sustainability maturity assessment method to improve the sustainability of HSC operations. Using the information gathered from field research with the IFRC as well as from the literature a proof of concept is presented to demonstrate the relevance of the proposal. @en

To develop decision support systems (DSS) that improve humanitarian supply chain (HSC) performance, there is a need for methods that support on field data gathering and knowledge structure. We propose a meta-model to structure the knowledge of HSC and to obtain a shared vision of the HSC. It has been developed to provide a framework to class gathered data by connecting it to HSC concepts. The meta-model includes four packages, defining the collaborative ecosystem (context, actors, objectives, and behavior). The concepts gathered during our field research experiences, added to the HSC core literature, have permitted to build the HSC meta-model layer. Models built from this meta-model can be used as knowledge bases for future DSS, dedicated to support vertical and horizontal coordination and collaboration of actors.@en