Supply chain management in disaster response : achieving effectiveness in drought induced disasters in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a Sub-Saharan African country which is exposed to the El-Nino effect. The frequent occurrence of the El-Nino phenomenon results in reduced precipitation in Zimbabwe. In recent years, the country experienced frequent and severe food shortages due to the effects of drought disasters affecting hundreds of thousands of people. The World Bank in 2013 reported that weather related disasters will continue to afflict the country hence the need for the country to devise robust drought coping strategies. The Zimbabwean government and registered private voluntary organisations work together in providing food relief to drought stricken communities. When rendering food aid, there are factors such as culture, leadership attitudes, the economy, political environment and the disaster management policy that affects the effectiveness of drought relief supply chains. The primary objective of this study was to explore the role of supply chains on the effects of drought induced disasters in Zimbabwe. The study objectives were to assess the disaster management environment in Zimbabwe; investigate the current supply chain management strategies used in drought disaster response in Zimbabwe; determine the extent to which disaster supply chains performance is affected by culture, leadership attitudes, political state, economic state, legal framework and to explore the adequacy of the disaster management policy in dealing with drought induced disaster in Zimbabwe. The crunch and the disaster phase models were used as overarching theories on which the study is grounded. The study made use of a triangulated research design. Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were applied. The research population comprised 200 participants in total, of which 26 were government officials and 174 were from Non- governmental organisations. Questionnaires and interviews were used to generate primary data. The data was analysed using Stata 13. The findings revealed that the identified factors were not enablers to drought relief response but exacerbated community vulnerability. Poor road network, lack of financial resources, poor stakeholder relations, poor communication and lack of information sharing affected the effectiveness of drought relief supply chains in Zimbabwe. The disaster management policy was also found to be reactive in posture and the Department of Civil Protection was not adequately resourced to effectively execute its mandate of coordinating and monitoring the activities of the different participants in drought disaster response. Another significant finding was that supply chain aspects such as transport costs and warehouse costs reduced because of the level of education and work experience of the participants. The major conclusions of the study were that culture, leadership attitudes, political state and the disaster management policy were not enablers of drought relief response in Zimbabwe except for economic state and the legal framework. It was also revealed that drought relief supply chains were affected by poor state of roads, political interference, lack of financial resources, poor communication and lack of information sharing among relief participants and that, the drought disaster management policy was not providing for drought logistics planning. The expected outcomes of the study are to help improve the effectiveness of drought disaster response in Zimbabwe. Fundamentally, the study anticipated to influence the drought disaster management policy so that there is an effective drought disaster management framework.