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.

中文翻译：

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为救灾行动设计综合救灾援助采购和最后一英里分发策略

虽然联合国人道主义应急仓库等大型人道主义组织 （HO） 在准备阶段会在战略中心预置救援物资，但许多当地 HO 只有在评估了响应阶段受益人的需求后才会采购救援物资。由于道路基础设施中断、协调问题和援助分配不公平，这通常会导致采购和最后一英里配送挑战，导致救援物资严重短缺，最终加剧受益人的痛苦。本文通过提出一个综合框架来解决这些差距，以便在灾难响应行动中实现有效采购和公平的最后一英里分配。以实践为驱动力，我们分析了考虑到受益人剥夺成本的回购和期权合同，以协调 HO 和供应商在不同路况下的采购流程。随后，我们开发了一个多时期的最后一英里救济分配模型，该模型弥合了 HO 和受益人之间的差距，并考虑了社会成本、车队容量和不确定的需求。该综合分析框架旨在提供采购和最后一英里配送的顺序地图，增强人道主义物流的三个关键指标：效率、有效性和公平性。阿萨姆邦洪水的案例研究验证了该框架，展示了它通过解决现实世界场景中的采购和最后一英里配送挑战来改善灾难响应结果的潜力。最后，本研究为从事灾难响应行动的人道从业者提供了几个管理意义。