Disaster Impact and Country Logistics Performance

Abstract

The study in this chapter seeks to answer the question whether a country’s logistics performance has a correlation with the impacts of a disaster; impact being measured in average amount of affected, the average amount of deaths, the average amount of injured in a disaster or the average amount of economic damage. This is a quantitative study where the EM-DATs disaster data is analyzed through correlation analysis against the World Bank’s logistics performance index (LPI). The findings do not show a significant relationship between countries LPI and the average number of deaths or injured persons in a disaster. A positive correlation between the variable LPI and the variable economic damage can be found. A negative correlation between the LPI and the average amount of affected can be found for countries with an average ranking LPI. Countries with low LPI and high disaster occurrence are further identified. Findings encourage the identified countries to take into consideration their logistics performance when planning and carrying out humanitarian response operations. Results also encourage humanitarian organizations to pay attention to the receiving countries’ logistics performance in planning and carrying out humanitarian response operations.