Page 13 - The-5th-MCAIT2021-eProceeding

The Role of IT and IS in Improving Humanitarian Supply Chain
Management

a,b
a
a
Prima Denny Sentia , Syaimak Abdul Shukor *, Amelia Natasya Abdul Wahab ,
a
Muriati Mukhtar
a Center for Artificial Intelligence Technology, Faculty of Information Science & Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
b Industrial Engineering Department, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Jl. Tgk. Abdur Rauf No. 7 Darussalam, Banda Aceh 23111, Indonesia
*Email: syaimak@ukm.edu.my

Abstract

Natural disasters that occur worldwide attract researchers to find fast and targeted ways to distribute aid. Since 2007, studies
on Information Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS) have been growing and advancing to assist Humanitarian
Supply Chain Management (HSCM). By using qualitative methods based on the literature review, this article has two
objectives. The first is to explain IT and IS's role in improving the humanitarian logistics supply chain (HSCM). Second,
exploring current trends in the use of IT and IS in several humanitarian organizations. The results of this study indicate that
IT and IS have at least five prominent roles, namely producing transparent HSCM, minimizing risk, reducing costs, detecting
demand for aids, and helping stakeholders to make the right policies. Therefore, humanitarian organizations are encouraged
to take advantage of IT and IS in carrying out their humanitarian activities.

Keywords: Information Technology; Information System; Humanitarian Supply Chain Management.

1. Introduction
Every year, various aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars is sent to affected countries worldwide (PSA,
2015). There are 83% of disasters that have been caused by natural hazards that cause extreme weather, floods,
storms, landslides, and heatwaves. This situation occurred worldwide, killed more than 410,000 people, and
affected 1.7 billion people (IFRC, 2020). Various kinds of natural disasters that have occurred worldwide and
have increased over the last two decades have become a concern for researchers concerned in the field of the
humanitarian supply chain (HSC) (Upadhyay et al., 2020).
During a disaster, HSCM plays an essential role in allocating assistance to disaster victims, especially in the
logistics sector. The supply chain must be operated efficiently to ensure the logistics distribution reaches the
right target. Response to disasters involves government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), UN
agencies, the military, and private sector organizations (Costaetal.,2012). Beniniet al.(2009), in their research,
states that there are two pieces of information needed to distribute humanitarian logistics: First, it needs
information which covers needs assessment, size of the affected population and additional adversity
vulnerability, damage levels, pre-existing poverty. Second, logistics information (distance from the hub,
transportation capacity on a given day, access roads open on a given day, and existing cargo handling orders.
During a disaster situation, decision-makers need a precise picture of the interconnection between systems. In
this case, HSCM often experiences delays in decision making, resulting in delays in rescue teams in distributing
logistics to victims (Tatham and Houghton, 2011).
Awareness of the difficulties in logistics distribution to disaster victims led researchers to focus their studies
on the HSCM study. The research has implications for the increasing number of publications in the HSCM field,
and they are studied in various sub-topics. One of them is related to information technology and information

E- Proceedings of The 5th International Multi-Conference on Artificial Intelligence Technology (MCAIT 2021) [1]
Artificial Intelligence in the 4th Industrial Revolution