Contributions to Humanitarian and Non-profit Operations: Equity Impacts on Modeling and Solution Approaches

Smilowitz, Karen

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-11866-2_16

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Since fairness and equity are abstract sociopolitical and subjective concepts, selection of an appropriate equity measure depends on the problem that is being considered and stakeholders' preferences (Balcik & Smilowitz, 2020;Berenguer, 2016;Leclerc et al, 2012). Marsh and Schilling (1994) provide an extensive review of equity measures that Production and Operations Management are commonly used in humanitarian operations.…”

Section: Equitable Resource Allocation In Humanitarian Operationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Equitable distribution of perishable items in a food bank supply chain

Orgut

Lodree

2023

Production and Operations Management

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In the United States, food banks play an important role in helping to reduce the rate of food insecurity by distributing donated food among the population in need. One of the challenges that food banks face is to equitably distribute food donations among their clients such that, ideally, each recipient receives the same amount of food. They aim to do so while minimizing waste that occurs due to spoilage and capacity limitations. Perishable food items present specific challenges since they are susceptible to spoilage and need to be distributed before their expiry dates. Based on our longstanding partnership with a large food bank located in the southeastern United States, we present a capacitated, multiperiod, multiproduct network flow model to help them equitably and effectively distribute perishable food donations among the food‐insecure population in their service region. The model is applied within the context of a case study and reveals managerial insights that would be useful to practitioners. Our findings show that although equity is one of the food bank's highest priorities, inequities cannot be eliminated completely. Given the inevitability of inequitable food allocations in practice, this paper provides food banks guidance on how to strategically control inequities using two approaches: (i) by increasing the number of periods for which equity should be satisfied or () by allowing deviations from a perfectly equitable distribution. The results show that modest deviations from perfect equity using either approach can lead to significant improvements in both the quality and quantity of food distributed and can also reduce food waste. While approach () is preferable, the most desirable outcomes occur when both are applied simultaneously. We also find that county capacities inhibit a food bank's ability to achieve balance between equity and effectiveness when distributing perishables. Our framework provides food banks the flexibility to balance the trade‐off between effectiveness and equity based on their preferences.

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Section: Equitable Resource Allocation In Humanitarian Operationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Equitable distribution of perishable items in a food bank supply chain

Orgut

Lodree

2023

Production and Operations Management

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“…Disaster Relief Operations: Beamon and Balcik (2008) review disaster relief operations criteria, while Gutjahr and Nolz (2016) and Balcik and Smilowitz (2020) present an overview of multicriteria optimization models in humanitarian aid distribution. In disaster relief operations literature, several papers focus on equity optimization, which they define as a function of demand fill rates (e.g., Anaya-Arenas et al 2018), travel time (e.g., Aslan and C ¸elik 2019), or a measure of suffering (e.g., Yu et al 2018).…”

Section: The Modeling Of Equity Effectiveness and Efficiency In Human...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Elicitation of Preference among Multiple Criteria in Food Distribution by Food Banks

Hasnain

Orgut

Ivy

2021

Production and Operations Management

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The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals provide a road map for countries to achieve peace and prosperity. In this study, we address two of these sustainable development goals: achieving food security and reducing inequalities. Food banks are nonprofit organizations that collect and distribute food donations to food‐insecure populations in their service regions. Food banks consider three criteria while distributing the donated food: equity, effectiveness, and efficiency. The equity criterion aims to distribute food in proportion to the food‐insecure households in a food bank's service area. The effectiveness criterion aims to minimize undistributed food, whereas the efficiency criterion minimizes the total cost of transportation. Models that assume predetermined weights on these criteria may produce inaccurate results as the preference of food banks over these criteria may vary over time, and as a function of supply and demand. In collaboration with our food bank partner in North Carolina, we develop a single‐period, weighted multi‐criteria optimization model that provides the decision‐maker the flexibility to capture their preferences over the three criteria of equity, effectiveness, and efficiency, and explore the resulting trade‐offs. We then introduce a novel algorithm that elicits the inherent preference of a food bank by analyzing its actions within a single‐period. The algorithm does not require direct interaction with the decision‐maker. The non‐interactive nature of this algorithm is especially significant for humanitarian organizations such as food banks which lack the resources to interact with modelers on a regular basis. We perform extensive numerical experiments to validate the efficiency of our algorithm. We illustrate results using historical data from our food bank partner and discuss managerial insights. We explore the implications of different decision‐maker preferences for the criteria on distribution policies.

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“…The first important challenge in this category was lack of access to certain services (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). Lack of access to humanitarian assistance was generally discussed in different studies (24)(25)(26)(27), but some of them were focused on access to reproductive health services (28). Neglected family planning (12,17,19), unplanned pregnancy (11,14,17), preventable maternal and infant death (17), spread of HIV (12,17) and violence against women (12,(15)(16)(17)(18) may be the results of lack of access to certain services.…”

Section: Availability and Accessibility Of Reproductive Health Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges of Reproductive Health Management in the Camps of Internally Displaced Persons: A Systematic Review

Shahmoradi

Mohammad

Jaafaripooyan

2021

Ethiop J Health Sci

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BACKGROUND Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the camps face many reproductive health challenges. They should meet their needs timely to save their lives. This paper outlines a systematic review to discuss the challenges of reproductive health management in the camps of internally displaced persons.METHODS: For this research, electronic databases including PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Pro Quest, Google Scholar and Cochrane Library till January 1, 2020 were searched. A threestage screening process was used for the selection of literature due to PRISMA checklist. Finally, a thematic synthesis approach was applied to analyze the data.RESULTS: In total, 133 articles were identified; 11 articles met the inclusion criteria for entering the process of final analysis. The findings were demonstrated in six main categories of availability and accessibility of reproductive health services, sexual and gender-based issues, human rights, social and cultural issues, coordination and collaboration, and mental health issues. The remarkable result of this study highlighted that the main challenges are lack of access to health services, violence against women and lack of household education.CONCLUSION: Results of this systematic review present valuable advice for policy makers and managers to prepare and respond effectively and timely to reproductive health challenges of internally displaces persons. Disaster preparedness plans and contingency plans for maintaining and developing reproductive health in IDPs camps are recommended.

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Contributions to Humanitarian and Non-profit Operations: Equity Impacts on Modeling and Solution Approaches

Cited by 5 publications

References 36 publications

Equitable distribution of perishable items in a food bank supply chain

Equitable distribution of perishable items in a food bank supply chain

Elicitation of Preference among Multiple Criteria in Food Distribution by Food Banks

Challenges of Reproductive Health Management in the Camps of Internally Displaced Persons: A Systematic Review

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