The High Cost of Humanitarian Logistics

Susan Fullmer

Sp19 - MDS 420 - Globalization    

14 April 2019

The High Cost of Humanitarian Logistics

Most people, especially those who live in affluent areas, tend to take energy for granted.  They often don’t realize that energy is a valuable commodity. It can be scarce and some predict that it will become even more scarce in the future.  Predictions assume that global energy demands will stay in constant flux while consumption of energy will exponentially increase at least as steadily as the population growth, if not more.  This growth will also increase as countries of emerging economies continue to modernize and industrialize. Two current examples of this would be China and India. These types of countries will logically have growing demands for energy independence and attempt to ensure their own energy assets.

In the Energy Issue Brief in Globalization 101, Matthew Ocheltree states that, “Energy...will play an increasingly important role in the lives of all global citizens in the coming years.”  He also states that globalization is complicating the global energy landscape in such a way that we are only beginning to understand. Ocheltree reports, “Strong global economic growth and the need to ship more goods and services around the world have raised demand for energy in many sectors.”  Nowhere is this more evident than in the transportation of food. This paper will argue that it is important to consider every option in decreasing energy, time, and cost when it comes to the transportation of a focused area of shipping food - Aid and post disaster relief.

In regards to food, we rely on the shipping industry.  There are currently over a hundred thousand working vessels on the sea.  Shipping goods has quadrupled in size since 1970 and it’s estimated that 90% of everything we have has been delivered by boat.  We depend on this method of delivery more than ever. This is also true of humanitarian aid.

On the surface, shipping seems like an efficient and “green” way to spend our energy while transporting such things as food.  Shipping only pollutes one thousandth of aviation and one tenth of trucking. But that doesn’t take the whole picture into account.  When you combine the mass volume of shipping and calculate it that way, you get a very different story.

In the TED Talk, “Inside the Secret Shipping Industry,” Rose George states that we need to compare shipping miles with air miles.  When doing this we find, for example, that shipping has 3 - 4% more emissions than aviation. When looking at particles, ashes, and soot, fifteen large ships pollutes the same as all the cars in the world!  (Keep in mind that there are over 100,000 ships currently at sea) This astounding comparison is even better understood when we look at the type of fuel these ships are using. It’s called “Bunker Fuel” or as people in the industry call it, “The dregs of the refinery, (one step up from asphalt).”  Why in the world would the shipping industry use such polluting fuel? It’s simple, they have tight margins.  They want to go fast. And they want to go cheap.

Also, shipping has had a horrible effect on the acoustic habitats of ocean creatures that communicate by sound.  This is a definite downside of shipping and sadly, there are no laws governing acoustic pollution.

Fortunately, there are studies regarding the efficacy and costs of shipping humanitarian aid.   There are models to program best decisions related to the distribution of international aid and post catastrophic disaster relief.  Often in these situations, non-profit international organizations and foreign countries will offer assistance by shipping necessary products to the country in need.

The sending country will of course want to minimize their shipping costs.  On the other hand, the receiving country wants to receive the aid and distribute it to the affected areas as efficiently and quickly as possible.  One example of this would be the earthquake in Chile in 2010. Studies were done on this and other similar events. They came up with some recommendations for aid distribution for future disasters.  The efficient delivery of this aid can prevent deaths caused by starvation and disease. The study of the importance of speed and efficiency in the supply chain in these situations is called Humanitarian Logistics.

"A Bi-Level Optimization Model for Aid Distribution after the Occurrence of a Disaster" in the Journal of Cleaner Production was one such example of research into Humanitarian Logistics.  José-Fernando Camacho-Vallejo laid out a variety of models used when considering post-disaster response and recovery, some including complex mathematical equations. Camacho-Vallejo states that, “All models focus on response to the disaster to preserve life, infrastructure, environment, and the social, economic and political structure of the affected community.  His paper focused on the response stage to consider problems of distribution and transportation. Aside from the country to country transportation, they also had to consider the in-country transportation which could be disrupted in the case of natural disasters such as earthquakes. They considered many solutions for many scenarios. But one consideration remained the same in all situations - keeping transportation costs down.  

As it happens, the United States delivers its food assistance primarily by overseas shipping.  According to the research study, Assessing the Impact of U.S. Food Assistance Delivery Policies on Child Mortality in Northern Kenya, the approach is costlier and less time efficient. Their cheaper and faster solution is cash-based assistance.  This would include cash transfers, food vouchers, and local and regional procurement. To make matters worse, the United States also requires that half of its transoceanic food shipments need to be sent on U.S. flag vessels. This can delay shipping even more.  The study on Kenya shows that these food assistance distribution policies are so delaying of delivery that it causes a higher level of child mortality in the affected country. Not only does the current policies slow the delivery of food, but it is more costly due to shipping expenses.  And this is money that could have been spent on more humanitarian aid.

It is critical that we consider new options for the delivery of food and other aid for post disaster relief in hopes of finding faster, cheaper and more efficient ways of delivering this aid.

Works Cited

Camacho-Vallejo, José-Fernando, et al. “A Bi-Level Optimization Model for Aid Distribution after the Occurrence of a Disaster.” Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 105, 2015, pp. 134–145., doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.069.

George, Rose--Inside the Secret Shipping Industry.” TED, 13 Dec. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7RsRnYlz7I&t=371s.

Nikulkov, Alex, et al. “Assessing the Impact of U.S. Food Assistance Delivery Policies on Child Mortality in Northern Kenya.” Plos One, vol. 11, no. 12, 2016, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0168432.

Ocheltree, Matthew, et at. “Energy Issue Brief.” Globalization 101, http://www.globalization101.org/about-us/