18 February 2010 | Rebecca Ellinor

The earthquake that devastated Haiti presented huge challenges for the aid effort. Rebecca Ellinor speaks to relief agencies to find out how the supply chain is coping

It is estimated up to three million people were affected by the earthquake which struck Haiti on 12 January. So far 230,000 have died and about 200,000 have been injured.

The Disasters Emergency Committee, composed of 13 humanitarian aid agencies, mobilised immediately with other charities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as part of the coordinated response. They have comprehensive plans to deliver and distribute basic commodities such as food, blankets, sheets and tents but, as one agency tells SM, plans are one thing, implementation is another.

Here we look at the challenges of getting aid fast to where it is needed, and how Haiti differs from previous disasters.

A DIFFERENT WORLD

Susan Reichle, senior deputy assistant administrator for USAID’s Bureau of Democracy, said the earthquake hit the heart of the country. “While other disasters, such as the tsunami and the earthquakes in the Philippines, have their challenges the difference is this struck the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, which has abominable basic indicators.”

Nicole Menage, director of the procurement division at World Food Programme (WPF), says the scale of destruction in Haiti, coupled with its abject poverty, made the operation particularly difficult.

“It had to be set up in a densely populated urban area, which demanded the organisation of tightly controlled distribution systems and security escorts. Certainly, the massive destruction of infrastructure added heavily to the complexity of the operation,” she adds.

The nature of the catastrophe itself is also significant, says Haresh Gurnani, professor and chairman at the Department of Management at the University of Miami, whose specialist areas include supply chain and logistics management.

“Earthquakes are different from other natural disasters because there is no advance warning. For example, when a hurricane is approaching a region, there is typically sufficient advance notice and planning is already in place. Firms such as Home Depot and Wal-Mart start diverting shipment that will be needed once the relief operations start. This takes place before the actual event has occurred.”

In the case of Haiti, he says, the entire infrastructure needed to provide help – airports, ports and communications – was destroyed. “Disaster relief requires unprecedented cooperation and coordination between private firms, government, and NGOs. This was also difficult to achieve because of lack of communication capabilities.” 

Haiti is a small island with a very limited supply base so everything has to be imported. And to further compound the situation, the operations of many organisations were themselves damaged by the quake, including the UN headquarters and Unicef office, as well as medical facilities and roads.

STRUCTURAL DAMAGE

For the supply chain community the biggest challenge remains the in-country logistics.

Richard North, head of logistics, at the British Red Cross, agrees the scale of devastation together with its location have made the response to this disaster more difficult. “The airport is small and unable to handle the volume of traffic required – it normally manages only about four aircraft at a time. And it couldn’t run 24 hours to begin with because there was no power.

“The sea port was badly damaged, with cranes knocked over and the whole quayside levels changed. Even following the tsunami we could open up a secondary port – you normally have a few options.”

In this case a large number of planes are going through Santo Domingo in neighbouring Dominican Republic then making a 150-mile journey to Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital. And while there are other ports around Haiti that are being used, they are small and poorly equipped. So aid has had to include unloading and transportation equipment as well as necessities such as food and shelter.

In 2005 the UN set up a cluster system to co-ordinate the various NGOs. It divides responsibility for all emergency response requirements to ensure there are no gaps. There are clusters for health, education, water sanitation and so on. Charities feed into their relevant cluster, with each led by one organisation.

As the lead food, logistics and telecommunications agency, the WFP was faced with having to open air, sea and land corridors as well as the rehabilitation of emergency telecommunications systems for the humanitarian community.

The five corridors into Haiti were by road from the Dominican Republic, the main airport at Port-au-Prince and another airstrip in Barahona in the Dominican Republic, the main port in the Haitian capital, as well as Cap Haitien. 

“Although we were able to rapidly procure food to complement any stocks that could be recuperated from our warehouses that had partially fallen in, we then had to ensure that this food could reach the country.

“This meant airlifting in the initial quantities of ready meals, high energy biscuits and plumpy (a peanut-based supplement used for famine relief) that are distributed at the beginning of an emergency like this, when cooking is difficult.”

WFP is now ramping up distribution through fixed sites across Port-au-Prince.

UNHELPFUL DONATIONS

Julian Neale is a procurement and logistics specialist at the UK Department for International Development’s (DfID) Conflict, Humanitarian & Security Operations Team. The four-strong group (including him) runs all the procurement and logistics for DfID’s disaster response. It has moved everything from the search and rescue teams through to large forklifts and shelter kits by sea, air and road from suppliers and hubs in China, Dubai, France, UK, Belgium and Panama.

“It’s been a busy few weeks,” he says – which includes a few 32-hour shifts.

One of the biggest problems they face is the tonnes of unsolicited donations which arrive following a disaster. There are issues of quality and suitability as well as the risk that the distribution of non-standard items could prompt a riot.

Jean-Cedric Meeus, logistics specialist and emergency co-ordinator in Unicef’s supply division, said medicines have been sent labelled in Chinese, Russian or Arabic which require a translator and specialist pharmacist to identify. And Neale points out some drugs may not be permitted in the country in any case.

Although donations are well-meaning, North says, they clog up vital access channels.

“A plane containing toys might arrive when you were expecting one with kit to set up a hospital.”

Neale says: “About a third of the goods in the main warehouse in Port-au-Prince is stuff nobody asked for. Nobody knows what it is or how it can be utilised, if at all.”

In some cases these well-intentioned acts also dent the availability of emergency goods.

For instance a government or organisation outside the cluster system sourcing thousands of tents (and accepting a supplier’s first price) eats up crucial supplier availability, and could push vendors to operate in a non-ethical manner.

Meeus adds: “They should report to the cluster so we can look at needs, try to maximise assistance and procure accordingly. If we don’t talk together it may result in a surplus that will create a black market. Haiti is a small country so for years it will have commodities that will go to waste.”

Meeus says although charities keep stocks of emergency supplies at hubs around the world and have long-term agreements in place with vendors, “requirements for Haiti were above everything we could have planned, so we have to look for other suppliers and in some cases they are being used by others. Everyone is trying to get hold of same thing.”

Neale says only about 30 per cent of emergency aid comes from a stockpile, with the rest of the sourcing done in a direct response to a disaster.

 “When you have a highly visible emergency everyone wants to show they are helping but it’s less important who did it and more important to put all the assets together,” says Meeus.

One of the advantages of working in the field of humanitarian response is that the logistics community is close and generally has good relationships with vendors.

“Procurement colleagues have a very special relationship with suppliers,” says Meeus.

Neale agrees: “We get more out of our suppliers because of what we’re doing. We’ve got very good relationships with some companies and individuals. Some of them have been there at 3am helping us and they don’t charge more. They see it as their good deed.”