Decision support in supply chain management for disaster relief in Somalia

Abstract

Somalia, a country situated in Eastern Africa has been struggling between rival warlords and an inability to deal with famine. Diseases have resulted to the deaths of up to millions of people. According to a New York Times article on 25 November 2011, Somalia has become a suffering and failed state. The inadequate infrastructure and poorly planned logistics of Somalia may lead to the destruction of the country. To address these concerns, it is necessary that humanitarian aid is prepositioned to provide victims with sufficient relief. This chapter addresses some of the issues in supply chain management with the trade-off between stockpile cost and shortage cost by using pre-emptive multi-objective programming. The proposed criteria of the model are described. This is followed by a case study based on Somalia, illustrating the functionality of the model.