{"id":305,"date":"2020-08-28T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T09:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/?p=305"},"modified":"2023-12-08T18:42:09","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T16:42:09","slug":"framework-for-performance-evaluation-in-humanitarian-operations-from-the-beneficiary-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/2020\/08\/28\/framework-for-performance-evaluation-in-humanitarian-operations-from-the-beneficiary-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"Framework for performance evaluation in humanitarian operations from the beneficiary perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

28.08.2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brenda de Farias Oliveira Cardoso, Honorary mentioned in The HUMLOG Institute\u2019s Best Thesis Award 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supervisor: Adriana Leiras | Co-supervisor: Tharcisio Cotta Fontainha<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am a researcher\nat the HANDs Lab<\/a> (Humanitarian\nAssistance and Needs for Disasters) which is a laboratory of the Industrial\nEngineering Department at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro\n(PUC-Rio) focused on research in Humanitarian Logistics and Operations\nManagement in disasters, crises, and emergencies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the development\nof my master thesis, I saw an opportunity to combine two important research\ntopics: performance evaluation and humanitarian logistics. Nevertheless, I\ndecided to follow a novel perspective, and I ended up looking at how a\nhumanitarian operation can be considered successful from the perspective of the\nbeneficiaries. The supervision of Professor Adriana Leiras and co-supervision\nof Professor Tharcisio Cotta Fontainha were essential throughout the process\nand receiving an Honorable Mention at the HUMLOG Best Master Thesis Award 2020\ncontributes to enhancing the acknowledgement of the research relevance for a\nbroader audience. I hope you find the time to read some of my thoughts on the\ntopic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a contextual\nfactor, we see that the discussion about how to respond to a disaster is\ngaining more and more attention due to the increasing occurrence and\nconsequences of disasters worldwide. In 2019, for instance, natural disasters\naffected more than 95 million people and caused losses of 130 billion dollars.\nThese numbers reinforce the importance of humanitarian logistics and mainly the\ndisaster response when decisions must be designed to minimize the impacts of\nthese events on the lives of the affected population. Consequently, academic\nand professional communities still demonstrate a constant interest in the\ndevelopment of metrics to evaluate and pursue improved response operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the\nchallenges encountered in disaster response operations, performance evaluation\nproves to be an essential tool for directing organizations according to\nstrategic objectives. The occurrence of disasters causes donors, the media and\nthe beneficiaries themselves to monitor the efficiency and speed with which\norganizations can operate in operation. With data structured from a\nwell-established evaluation system, organizations can disseminate their results\nwith more transparency and assertiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the traditional\nperformance evaluation perspective in humanitarian logistics focuses on the view\nof stakeholders providing aid to the population, such as humanitarian\norganizations, governments, and donors. Indeed, these aid providers need to\nunderstand the real situation to pursue improved operations. Nevertheless, not\nalways do the performance evaluations include the perspective of the main\nclients who, in the humanitarian context, are the victims or beneficiaries (the\nusers of the service). Generally, the organizations are evaluated by their funders\nwhich may cause some conflicts of interest, such as biased analysis without\nreporting the real problems that exist in an organization. This problem brought\nthe following research question: how to assess the response to a disaster\nfrom the perspective of the beneficiary?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This discussion\nwas the central theme of my master research. Performance evaluation in\nhumanitarian operations is a growing research topic, not only due to the need\nfor transparency in operations but also due to the focus has not been on the\nbeneficiary. Therefore, from a systematic literature review of the, my master\nthesis proposes a framework with a step by step to measure the performance of\noperations considering the perspective of the beneficiary. The validity\nof the proposed framework is tested through two empirical research methods:\nsurvey and case study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed framework\nis based on other frameworks found in the literature, as well as on the\nanalysis of papers related to performance evaluation in humanitarian\noperations. The five steps in the framework are (1) identification of\norganizational objectives, (2) processes selection, (3) categories selection, (4)\ndata collection, and (5) assessment results. The organizational objectives include\nefficiency, effectiveness, delivery, flexibility, productivity, quality, cycle\ntime, and adaptation. The second step is the selection of processes and\ninvolves the distinction between pre-disaster and post-disaster categorization,\nwhich affects the remain steps. The selection of categories step takes into\nconsideration the pre-disaster and post-disaster with their respective six\nareas of analysis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n