Modelling the inter-relationship between factors affecting coordination in a humanitarian supply chain: a case of Chennai flood relief

The humanitarian supply chain (HSC) aims at providing relief to affected people in the wake of a disaster at the right place and at the right time to reduce their suffering. One of the major challenges faced by the HSC is the coordination between various actors. Previous studies have identified the factors affecting coordination but the literature is silent on the inter-dependence between these factors (criteria). In this study, we identify the factors affecting coordination based on the review of extant literature in HSC and interviews with multiple individuals representing various stakeholders involved with the relief activities carried out during the Chennai floods. These factors were grouped into four categories: information sharing, diversity (of the humanitarian agencies), organizational mandates and material convergence. We use a hybrid fuzzy DEMATEL-ANP methodology to identify the interdependence and develop the network relationship diagram by mapping the interdependence between the factors affecting the effective coordination between the actors in HSC. Our results indicate that information exchange between the humanitarian actors (HA) tantamount to achieve coordination in post disaster response phase. However, with the improvement in the post-disaster coordination, the HAs need to focus on pre-disaster preparedness phase through strong alignment of organizational mandates of HAs and focus on the diverse nature of HAs to align their operational strategies through standardized operations, inter-operability of activities and building trust through long term associations.