PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES OF HUMANITARIAN LOGISTICS: THE CASE OF SELECTED INTERNATIONAL NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

After World War II, Ethiopia began to receive economic development aid from the more affluent western countries. Originally the United Kingdom was the primary source of this aid, but they withdrew in 1952, to be replaced by the United States Edmond (1991). Since then the number of the NGO’s has been increasing gradually and their contribution is invaluable as far as humanity concerned. This research work is intended to assess the practice and challenges of humanitarian logistics in case of selected two humanitarian organizations in Ethiopia, I.e IOM and WFP. The research questions used to assess the practice and challenges in managing humanitarian logistics whereby to what extent its expected performance level realized, what are the main contributions of implementing partners in relief aid activities and what are the reasons bottlenecks/constraints/challenges in accessibility of roads or infrastructures during relief aid dispatches. These questions were relevant to identify the practice and challenges with corresponding relevant factors that contributes for the success of any aid supply to vulnerable societies. Considering the size of the target population (homogeneous population), census survey has been used. Primary data were collected from 30 logistics and supply unit staffs and 2 managements through interview. Out of 30 questionnaires distributed only 22 were successfully returned back. Descriptive analysis method was used to calculate the outputs (mean and standard deviation) using the most prominent statistical software called SPSS. Based on the finding of the research most of the respondents emphasized that the condition of infrastructure facility in aid distribution areas is bad and there is a strict government procedure related to aid cargo clearance process within port Djibouti. Respondents also tend to strongly emphasize that there is a scarcity of warehouse space around aid distribution areas and lack of information management system prevail during pre-disaster time. In addition, the major finding of the research shows that quality of trucks provided by transport companies are poor and below standard. Hence, it’s possible to conclude that bad condition of infrastructure, strict cargo clearance procedure, and scarcity of warehouse space and lack of appropriate information management system are the major challenges of case organizations has a potential to cut off those affected from aid assistance. Therefore both the government of Ethiopia (GoE) and case organizations needs to overcome these specific challenges collaboratively.