Designing integrated relief aid procurement and last-mile distribution strategies for disaster response operations

While large humanitarian organizations (HOs) such as the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot preposition relief items at strategic hubs during the preparedness phase, many local HOs procure relief supplies only after assessing beneficiaries’ needs in the response phase. This often leads to procurement and last-mile distribution challenges due to disrupted road infrastructure, coordination issues, and inequitable aid distribution, resulting in severe shortages of relief supplies and ultimately aggravating the beneficiaries suffering. This paper addresses these gaps by proposing an integrated framework for effective procurement and equitable last-mile distribution in disaster response operations. Driven by practice, we analyse buyback and options contracts accounting for the beneficiary’s deprivation cost to coordinate the procurement process between the HO and the supplier under varying road conditions. Subsequently, we develop a multi-period last-mile relief distribution model that bridges the gap between the HO and the beneficiaries and accounts for social costs, fleet capacity, and uncertain demand. The integrated analytical framework aims to provide a sequential map of the procurement and last-mile distribution, enhancing the three critical metrics of humanitarian logistics: efficiency, effectiveness and equity. A case study of the Assam Floods validates the framework, demonstrating its potential to improve disaster response outcomes by addressing procurement and last-mile distribution challenges in real-world scenarios. Lastly, this study offers several managerial implications for humanitarian practitioners working in disaster response operations.