Supply Chain Efficacy in Relief Delivery

Introduction

Disaster management in the country involves the government, the military, humanitarian organisations and the community members in order to handle effectively the distribution of relief materials to the victims (Sweet, 1998). During disaster situations, the actors have little encouragement of working together for an extensive period as the aid agencies unexpectedly face pressure to use their resources to capacity in assisting and mitigating the disruptions and the widespread losses affecting the victims (Wilhelm, 2012). Namibia is affected regularly by natural disasters, one of the most common being drought. Drought has been particularly harmful to the economy of the affected communities particularly in regions of Caprivi, Hardap, Kavango, Oshana, Omusati in Namibia (Wilhelm, 2012). There has been huge destruction both in agriculture and business due to drought. Further, the floods and drought together have also produced structural damage including loss of life and livelihoods. This has definitely affected long-term development (Ministry of Education, 2015). Therefore, to mitigate the demand during disasters, it becomes crucial that government and other humanitarian agencies like Namibia Red Cross Society, supplement the efforts of regional and local government (Sebbah, Boukhtouta & Ghanmi, 2012).

Droughts are recurrence and occur mostly in alternate years as many of the regions receive less than 300 mm annual rainfall (Namibian Metrological Services, 2016). Major drought distressing large part of the country occurred in 1930s. Another most shattering drought Namibia has witnessed lasted for ten long year’s from1960-1971 (Namibian Disaster Management Plan, 2015). Drought disasters occurred between 1982 and 1984 because of poor rainfall during those 3 consecutive years and again followed by another drought between 1992 and 1993 still due to rain deficiency (Sweet, 1998). Disasters in general have over the years resulted in 24,000 deaths, displaced more than 608 million people and caused damages amounting to $27 billion worldwide annually (Hoyois et al., 2007). Okatana Constituency the main area for the study has been receiving drought relief since the last outbreak. There have also been various reports in Namibian dailies of issues with drought relief (Staff Reporter, 2016; Kahiurika, 2016). These also became the focus of discussions at various conferences, seminars and other events on drought relief distribution (Haufiku, 2013). There is no supply chain management (SCM) technique or model existing which can be engaged to deliver aid and relief to disaster affected populations in Namibia. Over the years, Namibia is affected by devastating drought due to rain deficiency (See Table 1).

Source: EM-DAT database