A critical investigation into the issues faced by logistical managers in getting aid to disaster areas
Natural disasters are a fact of life for many areas around the world, for example last year alone there were earthquakes in both Nepal and Afghanistan that have broken 7 on the Richter scale, allowing them to be characterised as Major Earthquakes. Generally, features of such an earthquake are shown by by damage to most buildings, potentially, resulting in either partial of complete collapse, often with ignorance to well-designed buildings. They’re felt across a large area, with major damage tending to be contained within a 250km radius around the epicentre. Every single time a disaster breaks out in one of these areas there is international response from around the globe, be it from the UN that coordinates all nations’ international response teams such as aid provided by the UK and France to Nepal in late April 2015 or from an international NGO such as IFRCC, (International Federation for the Red Cross and Crescent) that have bases permanently stationed in the worst affected areas. The topic of logistical barriers was presented to me initially through a simple school discussion following the Haiti earthquake of 2010 as part of our talks we spoke about the inefficiencies faced by these teams such as the ports at Port-au-Prince became very blocked as air traffic couldn’t land as a result of the states of the runway and it really intrigued me as I looked into the maths and the amount of consideration taken by each organisation, from issues such as preventing commercial companies taking advantage of the dropped import tax which is required to reduce the cost of getting in supplies such as food and shelter to those affected to others such as the prevention of disease spreading as a result of overflowing sewers. I found that the nature of the work and the constant changing challenges such as in earthquake zones where the ground can potentially shift hourly as a result of aftershocks calling for a plan the requires tens of potential outcomes and hundreds of moving parts to allow a plan to be flexible enough to work within areas of huge change, such as during the aftershocks in Nepal where the aftershocks caused up to 4 major landslides a day during the worst periods of crust movement in early May 2015. I wanted to have a key focus on Nepal throughout this write up as, during my research, the ingenuity to each of the solutions and the depth and breadth of the issues faced by logistical managers spread so wide as to really encapsulate me within the topic, in addition to this I found that there was a slight ambiguity to my title as to simply focus of aid relief as a whole would have been a gargantuan task, that needed to have a focus, additionally, I found that the issues within Nepal can be easily projected onto other areas such as LA or Haiti, where reactions and efficiency become really apparent during the period of recovery.
The topic took my attention as I saw it was a way into a subject and career path that I was already very interested in. I found that it was a way to look into the issues of today’s logistical managers and reflect on how that would be overcome through various methods. In addition to this I thoroughly enjoyed the topical nature of it as the information was fairly new meaning that it was a subject that would change as I researched and really got deep into the issues. An extension of this is it would aid my pathway into university as Supply Chain Management played a key role in Nepal’s aid relief.
My initial knowledge into the topic was somewhat limited following my research into the project, from my A level subjects, most importantly geography, I had a basic understanding of the area of Nepal and the humanitarian issues faced after an earthquake. Such as having to organise supplies to set up refugee camps, work often completed by NGOs, furthermore I understood the principles behind earthquakes and how they never remain a simple one event sequence and have very differing consequences based upon the different plate boundaries. I had knowledge that Nepal was located on a convergent destructive plate boundary, (where two plates are moving into one another directly) as a consequence of this the pressure built up over decades of inactivity between the plates was going to be much larger in comparison to a boundary that had many, smaller events. Following a large event such as this there are often aftershocks, and as a result of the number of glaciers and geological features meaning that the ground would be constantly shifting following the major event, calling for much more adaptive solutions to aiding the nation as some areas may lose access unexpectedly, requiring a rapid change in delivery methods. Furthermore I knew through personal interest about the work completed by international bodies, most importantly the IFRCC and UN OCHA being the largest bodies at dealing with issues around the world, this is apparent as following the event on the April 25th the UN was able to call a $415,000,000 flash appeal to help pay for emergency response and supplies. In addition to this through my studies I knew that the impacts on a LDC such as Nepal would be far greater as the initial funds to impose building regulations and legislation were not there meaning the likelihood of collapsed buildings and deaths caused by secondary indicators (falling buildings, fires, etc.) are far higher compared to that of an MDC which is on the other end of the economic spectrum. From talking to my sources however I realised that this information was very limited and could only go so far into looking at each of the issues in depth faced by each organisation and demographic affected as it was very generalised and had very little insight or experience into the how the real issues are overcome within a disaster scenario.
The issues within Nepal are understood far better by people that have been working within the aid sector under a logistical capacity. To fulfil this part of my research to a state where I had a full understanding of the topic, in order to gain this understanding I managed to get in contact with logistical managers both past and present that had functioned within major international bodies such as UN OCHA.
Initially I contacted Maggie Heraty, who had extensive knowledge about the processes required to provide aid in ‘hazardous and hardship locations’. Her insight allowed me to get a basic understanding of the issues faced in these sorts of areas as she outlined the key issues that would be faced in such an event. This allowed my secondary research to be carried out with a much more specific topic references proving to be valuable in further interviews. Ms. Heraty (OBE) was a hugely reliable resource as her work has been implemented across the world and continues to be a major figurehead in logistics today being a Trustee for the Humanitarian Logistics Association. Furthermore, I was able to get in contact with several logistical managers that had acted within ‘the field’ (which is working on site to coordinate relief efforts). Most notably for my report was a logistician named Andrew Clarke whom I managed to secure a telephone interview. The significance of this was that Mr. Clarke had been functioning in Nepal, supporting aid relief following the earthquake that hit on April 25th. The outcome of the interview really helped with my report as I discovered that no issue could be singled out with regards to aid relief, however there were 7 or 8 differing major issues that could be broken down and analysed individually to see the affects and issues each different factor had upon aid relief. From all of my sources this was easily the most reliable as the information provided was first-hand knowledge of the real issues faced on the ground in Nepal. Andrew was based within Humanitarian Logistics as a consequence of this; issues discussed had a bias towards these topics due to the knowledge he had from being located within the aid relief programme. However he made a conscious effort to remove his personal opinions from the interview, allowing me to form my own opinions on each topic and a much purer rhetoric.
In addition to these pieces of primary data I often used websites such as the Guardian; they were able to provide me with a broad range of views. Most importantly for me was the inclusion of views from the people affected allowing me access to sources that otherwise I would not have been able to access these opinions due to the costs and my personal geographic location. I had a preference to the Guardian as the reports I read had less bias in comparison to other articles I read. In addition to this the range of reports focusing on many different important aspects to my report there’s a range of authors. A result of this is that there is very little change in perspective as the stories progress through the time they’re written, it doesn’t allow for one author to build an opinion and to change the onus of the core text to be altered allowing me with a much better understanding and well-rounded view of the issues.
Following this I intend on looking at the core issues of the population and how that affected the efficiency of aid relief as it seems to have the greatest impact on the other factors as well as being an issue in itself
Before the earthquake stuck Nepal on April 25th 2015 Nepal was could be recognised by its rich culture and heritage as presented by the stature and grand nature of their landmarks, such as the Bhimsen Tower. The thriving culture of Nepal stems from their only recent access to the rest of the world following the shift from a constitutional monarchy into a democratic government following an internal rising calling for a political shift. As a result the government is still developing as the shift from communism has taken longer than expected as the party still had strong support from the Nepalese population. As was reflected in the time of Gorbachev, communism was a weak economic structure; the consequence of this is that Nepal is reliant upon outside help for issues such as implementation of water and sewage systems.
The issues within Nepal have produced a great wealth of discussion points that are still hugely relevant and important to talk about today as the solutions to the issues immediately following the earthquake and, potentially a factor of more importance is the aftermath of the quake and the relocation and housing of over 2,800,000 people. As a result of these solutions being brought up by the event in Nepal their applications can be adapted and put into effect across the world, such as in places like Afghanistan where in the Hindu Kush mountain region there are often earthquakes affecting the geography and social status of the area every year, allowing for a far more efficient global aid system progressing beyond what we have in place today. The issues are still relevant in the world today as a result of work done by major international bodies, most prevalent being the United Nations, keeping the issues in the world eye as the problems following the earthquake are still visible across middle Asia, namely in the refugee camps set up to rehome those displaced, in contrast however the issues have fallen from the media view as major events such as the Paris Terror Attacks that followed later in the year shifted the focus away from the knock on effects that natural hazards have had on LEDC states such as Nepal.
Key Terms 1. IFRCC – International Federation of the Red Cross and Crescent. An independent Humanitarian organisation with the aim to “tackling the major humanitarian and development challenges of this decade” 2. UN OCHA – United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Part of the UN “responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies” 3. Richter scale – “a numerical scale for expressing the magnitude of an earthquake on the basis of seismograph oscillations. The more destructive earthquakes typically have magnitudes between about 5.5 and 8.9; it is a logarithmic scale and a difference of one represents an approximate thirtyfold difference in magnitude.” 4. MEDC – More Economically Developed Country. A country that has a higher development and economic status on the world stage in comparison to others, e.g. the UK, the US 5. LEDC – Less Economically Developed Country. A country of lower development and economic status than the rest of the world, e.g. Nepal, Indonesia 6. NGO – Non Governmental Organisation. A corporation set up outside of governmental barriers aimed at giving aid relief to areas in need, e.g. IFRCCS and Oxfam 7. In order to get research underway, it was important to look at what was achievable under time constraints. Hence putting a focus on the tasks that would take much more time and effort, the primary research tasks. This consisted of getting in contact with people that have a much wider breadth of knowledge on the topic, this was achieved through a personal contact having the availability to provide me with email addresses and phone numbers in order to contact numerous sources. Initial contact was however done through email alone, through wanting to maintain a polite and constructive rhetoric with each of my references. However this threw up the major issues of attempting to contact people within this job space, evident by the first source being unable to talk until they had finished work in Nairobi. However as potential time scales had already been revised, starting in November with primary research, there was enough time to still get input which was greatly constructive to my report as this culminated in a phone interview. The consequence of this is I was able to achieve a much more detailed piece of research in comparison to having been restricted to emails as often it took a long time to receive responses from my emails, caused by the nature of my sources work. To further my research it would be much more efficient to focus on getting phone interviews due to the amount of information available in such a short period of time, I know that this research is reliable further as my sources have combined over 50 years of experience. As a result the issues overcome have changed, meaning each perspective upon logistical issues are from a viewpoint that can really examine an issue in comparison to the issues of yesteryear helping to put each issue into significance. 8. The secondary research undertaken was approached with a very two dimensional stance in retrospect, as all the sources used were internet based. In hindsight it would have been greatly beneficial to look at reports written by professionals to give me much more expert views into the issues, going further than just the information of primary sources. In addition to this, it would have been of great use to have read books such as “Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures)” and “The Politics of Humanity: The Realities of Aid Relief” simply to provide a stronger initial basis to start writing from. Nonetheless, information gathered from various internet sources proved very fruitful as there was a huge depth and breadth of information, introducing me to new perspectives and quantify what the biggest pitfalls were in achieving aid in Nepal. As helpful as the wide range of sources were, I also came across a lot of satirical and untrustworthy websites, this meant that the process was much slower as having to verify the information on each website took a long time to complete, however it aided with important writing skills which allowed me to make much better judgements on the information had I not completed these tasks.

5. Discussion Points
As a result of the research, it was discovered a number of factors that rely and react off one another were the major issues into aid relief. These appear to be universal across all aid relief efforts however there are a couple of key differences within Nepal that made the aid relief effort so much harder to coordinate that simply couldn’t have been planned for. From correspondence with primary sources it was evident that although there’s a huge amount of small issues, they all come under 6 ‘umbrella’ categories that are the most hindering factors in aid relief, these being: 1. Population 2. Economy and Government 3. Supplies 4. Disease 5. Shifts in geography throughout the time of vital relief 6. Meteorological issues
Although there will be smaller issues under these broader sections of aid relief it was apparent that these were the greatest talking points as it’s a culmination of smaller points that mean the impact is far superior as a result. The two largest factors that impact the speed and effectiveness of aid relief within Nepal are arguably the population, and Supplies controlled by the government, due to these having the greatest knock on effects on other key parts of the effort, such as the introduction of supplies into the affected
There are many internal factors within a population that have huge impacts on the efficiency of aid relief, for example the movement and resettlement following the even on April 25th. The key issues that arose as a result of the mass movement of 2,800,000 people are the issues in communication of coordinating such a large relief effort. Namely as Nepal is an LDC it already lends itself to a weak infrastructure, a consequence of this it is much harder to inform the general population the methods of aid relief and how supplies will be moved to coordinate the most effective aid possible. As a consequence of the movement of this aid is sent with a focus on those most affected, such as those that have lost loved ones and businesses. However this produces a much more erratic and aggressive response from the population as a result of the poor communication to the population as it seems apparent that they’re being neglected, as aid services will move through various areas of devastation and not stopping to provide any aid. This prioritisation by NGOs combined with the weak communications infrastructure leads to a sense of hopelessness. This view of the population is presented by Nepalese resident Sasmita Shrestha, “none of the government bodies or aid agencies have visited us”. The anger felt from the population as a result has led to attacks on government agencies and offices, disrupting both the supply and distribution of basic aid as during an event such as this supplies are taken uneconomically, calling for a redistribution of aid to the same area, meaning that there is no more progress within the same district. In addition to this the relocation to remote and dangerous areas that already have poor access means that aid trucks must pass through many more struggling districts than would have previously been the case. This leaves them much more prone to being attacked for their supplies, as was made evident on the 29th of April when “protestors forced a truck off the road carrying water off the road”. These logistical bottlenecks caused by the population means that the aid effort is a much slower and taxing job, as it requires spending of the aid budget to be ‘wasted’ on security and defence teams in order to defend supply stations from the rioting public. Hence showing the significance of the population to be huge within coordinating an effective aid relief programme, as evident by the spending of the Nepalese government of military defence to combat the militant actions of the population, showing they have the ability to bring aid efforts to a standstill, with a major potential to produce much more dire consequences as a result of the prevention of movement of medical supplies. Shifting the focus of the aid relief effort from providing aid to a much more inefficient and ineffective programme aimed at the defence and more rigorous spread of help.
Supplies played the biggest role in hindering the aid relief within Nepal however played the most equally significant role in providing effective and to the people of Nepal. As a result of Nepal being recognised as a ‘repeat offender’’ there were some initial stock piles available to give aid to those directly affected within Kathmandu. However the aid that was available was only designed for a 1m 10 year event. This means that there was only enough stock to help a tiny proportion of people. As a consequence there were a lot of issues and tensions due to the waiting time for more supplies to come in, which is the main way supplies had an immediate effect on survivors both good and bad. It quickly became apparent that the way stocks were being managed was hugely inefficient as shown by Brigadier General Paul Kennedy, stating that the stock piling at Kathmandu airport was the main reason for aid routes being delayed and moved to Delhi airport in India as there was no space on the ground to position supplies as a result of not having enough equipment or manpower., further presented by the loss of drivers as they went to look after their families. The significance of this was shown by Shrimani Ray Khanal, a manager of the Nepal Food Corp as he spoke of having ‘ample food stock…’ but not able to transport supplies. A problem that was greatly worsened by the poor infrastructure in place, but slowed the movement of supplies from India further. The problems of supplies can be justified as the most important factor as the knock on effect has almost no limitations on the human logistics problems it creates down the supply chain when compared to other more secondary issues such as disease or weather conditions/constraints.
Despite this there are a wealth of other factors that play a huge part in the barriers to helping with the aid relief effort in the longer term, most importantly the economy. It went a great way to producing much longer lasting effect of the earthquake as it has slowed complete country progression and sustainability hugely. This is as a result of the almost complete breakdown of the country’s 3 main sources of income, Farming, Mountaineering and the production of energy through hydro-electric dams. The climbing season that revolves around the success of Mt Everest had to completely call off during its peak season as a consequence of the avalanches that occurred. The fallout from this is that in 2016 so far the amount of climbers predicted to attempt the climb from previous years (2014 and 2015) has fallen by over fifty percent; the significance of this is that the cost of climbing the mountain is around $45,000 per person. In addition to this over 34 percent of the economy is reliant upon the agricultural market; however the earthquake caused great numbers of landslides killing thousands of farmable animals and acres of arable land for growing crops. This means that in addition to the loss of major national food sources, hundreds of people have lost their livelihoods, the importance of this is that even following the conclusion of shorter term aid projects aiming to rehouse and feed the general population, the already poor country will struggle greatly to succeed and come back into the previous ‘success’ it was having within a global economy. It can be shown as the costs of rebuilding Nepal and putting it back to a previously sustainable state has been estimated between $1,000,000,000 and $10,000,000,000. The UN may have been able to bring in over $415 million in funds initially following an international flash appeal however this goes very little to solving the longer term issues Nepal will face, most prominently the sustainable progression of internal markets allowing for progression into the global economy. Furthermore the work completed by aid agencies suffer as a result of this due to a major loss in funding over time as international focus shifts onto other global problems. Had it not been for a collapse of over 40% of the economy the short term work completed would have gone a lot further to solving the longer term issues such as mass poverty due to the amount of jobs still available. However it’s not had as much of an impact on aid relief as supply management or the population as the immediate impact goes a lot further to affecting the long-term sustainability of the nation in comparison to the slightly lesser term problems from providing initial jobs providing a smaller boost to the economy given its strong ties with India and China, who was the largest investor in Nepal throughout 2014
The relief effort within Nepal has seen major calls to quickly act upon the poor sanitation that has been experienced previously. The main cause of this is the issues faced by all LDC’s as the implementation of a sewage system is not prioritised by governments, as opposed by the improvement of internal poverty statuses. The major problems within Nepal are the common nature of gastro infections, such as cholera, which is originally caused by the small number of people with access to working toilets (40 percent). Additionally the issue has become a much greater threat within the refugee camps presented in the fact there are “no latrines in the camps”, as a result of the monsoon season, the heightened number of people falling ill would be expected to spike, in addition to this the greater amount of water flowing by cause of glacial movements, a knock on effect being the overflowing of raw sewage due to the poor sewage system in place meaning the risk is even greater in view of the common nature of waterborne diseases, at the forefront being cholera. The fallout owing to these issues hinders aid efforts to a large extent as it slows cooperation between the populous and workers following the amount of care that has to be provided by families. However the impact remains much smaller than other influential factors as companies such as the International Medical Corps having the ability to deploy over 40 medical staff at short notice so the speed of disease is unlikely due to the speed that teams are able to mobilise to prevent the spread of disease as it’s viewed as such a high priority within the relief effort.
With the short term and the use of helicopters is unparralled in accessing remote area with necessary supplies. Yet there were many more meteorological issues to content with. At the forefront of this was the unseasonal rain fall that reduced all flights in and out of the country. This caused wait times for flights to extend massively s the home office banned all flight operations had to be cut and only allows to run when visibility was good enough for flights that didn’t reply on the use of inflight instruments such as radars. This was as a protective method due to the very swift changes in the geography of the mountains, caused by the 25 aftershocks that continued until the 2nd July 2015. These smaller events meant that as a result of massive glacial movement, causing Everest to lose 1.5m in height and bridges were being destroyed consequentially by being impacted and shaken by such events. Poor surveillance in the country accompanied by low lying cloud cover meant supplies couldn’t be sent by either rood or aircraft as it was an unknown factor whether aid would successfully get to its intended location. This is a greatly significant issue affected the introduction of supplies to new area, but their significance can be overlooked in regards to population as many truck drivers abandoned supply to leave and look after their own families; meaning the movement of supplies could potentially have happened but didn’t due to this issue.
In summary it can only be identified what the most significant knock on factors were in judging the speed and efficiency of the relief effort in Nepal. It became evident through writing that the slow pace of aid was a direct result of a combination of major influences. The size of factors varies, as the problems that arose as a result of the economy and supplies had a much greater impact in comparison to that of disease. Each factor taken individually would have been a relatively simple task when tackled as a unique issue, however, when key problems reliant upon each other effect aid at every instance from sourcing supplies to using them effectively make the aid effort for more inefficient and in effective.

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[ 1 ]. Monica Tan, Melisa Davey and Matthew Weaver - Nepal earthquake: Tensions rise over slow pace of aid – 30/4/2015
[ 2 ]. Humanitarian logistics > about us > background - 2014
[ 3 ]. See Appendix 1 – Written up notes of phone interview
[ 4 ]. See Figure 1
[ 5 ]. 2016 Sandbox Networks – Nepal - 2000
[ 6 ]. Mark Leon Goldberg – Nepal Earthquake Facts and Figures – 19/5/2015
[ 7 ]. UN OCHA - Who we are – NA
[ 8 ]. Google – “Define Richter Scale” - NA
[ 9 ]. Mark Leon Goldburg – Nepal Earthquake Facts and Figures – 19/5/2015
[ 10 ]. Rebecca Ratcliffe – The Guardian - Nepal customs holding up earthquake relief efforts, says United Nations – 2/5/2015
[ 11 ]. Ishwar Rauniyar – The Guardian - Nepal earthquake: Tensions rise over slow pace of aid – 30/4/2015
[ 12 ]. The Guardian - Nepal earthquake: Tensions rise over slow pace of aid – 30/4/2015
[ 13 ]. An Agence France-Presse report – The Guardian - Nepal earthquake: Tensions rise over slow pace of aid – 30/4/2015
[ 14 ]. Appendix 2 – Andrew Clarke interview notes
[ 15 ]. Jules Lambert - Everest 2016: How much does it cost to climb Mount Everest? – 21/12/2015
[ 16 ]. Ian Bremmer - Ian Bremmer on the Major Impact of Nepal's quake – 1/5/2015
[ 17 ]. The Guardian – Nepal earthquake: Tensions rise over slow pace of aid – 30/4/2015
[ 18 ]. Ian Bremmer - Ian Bremmer on the Major Impact of Nepal's quake – 1/5/2015
[ 19 ]. Appendix 2 – Andrew Clarke Interview Notes
[ 20 ]. Lisa O’Carroll - Nepal earthquake: Tensions rise over slow pace of aid – 30/4/15
[ 21 ]. The Guardian – Nepal earthquake: Tensions rise over slow pace of aid – 30/4/2015
[ 22 ]. Lisa O’Carroll - Nepal earthquake: Tensions rise over slow pace of aid – 30/4/15