Impact of pandemics on humanitarian retailing operations: A voucher's case

Abstract

In 2020, the world started a fight against a pandemic that has severely disrupted commercial and humanitarian supply chains. Humanitarian organizations (HOs), like the World Food Programme (WFP), adjusted their programs in order to manage this pandemic. One such program is cash and voucher assistance (CVA), which is used to bolster beneficiaries' freedom of choice regarding their consumption. In this vein, WFP supports local retailers to provide CVA to beneficiaries who do not have access to a functioning market. However, the operations of these stores can suffer from a very high transmission risk of COVID‐19 unless preventive measures are put in place to reduce it. This paper discusses strategies that retailers and HOs can enact to maximize their service and dignity levels while minimizing transmission risk under a CVA program during a pandemic. We argue that HOs providing CVA programs can improve their assistance during a pandemic by implementing strategies that impact the retailing operations of their retailers.

Managing pandemics: A POM perspective and directions for future research

“…The two papers that focus on studying the role of humanitarian operations during a pandemic include: “Process Modularity, Supply Chain Responsiveness, and Moderators: The Medecins Sans Frontières Response to the Covid‐19 Pandemic” (Saiah et al., 2023) and “Impact of Pandemics on Humanitarian Retailing Operations: A Vouchers Case” (Mohamadi et al., 2023).…”

“…The Medecins Sans Frontières Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic" (Saiah et al, 2023) and "Impact of Pandemics on Humanitarian Retailing Operations: A Vouchers Case" (Mohamadi et al, 2023). Saiah et al ( 2023) study the operations of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins sans Frontières-MSF), an international humanitarian organization (IHO).…”

“…Businesses also must deal with highimpact, low-probability events-the COVID-19 pandemic being a prime example-and can learn from humanitarian organizations, for whom dealing with such circumstances is a core competency. Mohamadi et al (2023) study the problem of maintaining critical, life-supporting, demand-supply transactions (humanitarian retail operations) under severe pandemic disease transmission circumstances. Thus, in 2020, the world struggled to survive COVID-19 pandemic conditions severely disrupting commercial supply chain fundamentals.…”

“…Mohamadi et al. (2023) study the problem of maintaining critical, life‐supporting, demand‐supply transactions (humanitarian retail operations) under severe pandemic disease transmission circumstances. Thus, in 2020, the world struggled to survive COVID‐19 pandemic conditions severely disrupting commercial supply chain fundamentals.…”

Understanding retail supply chain during COVID-19: a systematic review

“…Most existing literature has focussed on risk mitigation strategies from the buyer, supplier, or distributor's perspective, disregarding the role of retailers in managing SC (Coopmans et al, 2021;Grewal et al, 2021;Priyadarshini and Abhilash, 2021;Mohamadi et al, 2023). This study is set out to identify the themes that emerged from retail supply chain (RSC) literature during the COVID-19 pandemic to inform future mitigation and recovery strategies.…”