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MBA633ONL - Humanitarian Relief

Enter answers into the appropriate dropbox for each question

Extensive outside reading is required for this assignment

Institutional Learning Goals and Objectives Associated with this Assignment

A. Academic Excellence – Knowledge

Students demonstrate an awareness of the many perspectives that inform human experiences and understand the responsibilities of a global citizen in the modern world.

Students demonstrate a general knowledge of ethical and moral issues as well as ones specific to their fields of study. (via Humanitarian relief assignment)

B. Catholic & Jesuit Mission & Identity (via the Humanitarian Relief Assignment)

Students demonstrate a familiarity with dimensions of the Catholic and Jesuit intellectual traditions as they occur in literature, art, science and social teaching.

In the Jesuit tradition, be intentional learners who can adapt to new environments, integrate knowledge, and continue learning throughout their lives.

Use their gifts for the service of others and the benefit of society.

MBA Degree-Program Learning Goals and Objectives Associated with this Assignment

A. MBA graduates will understand global operations management and marketing concepts.

Students will demonstrate a capacity to apply business knowledge in new and unfamiliar circumstances through a conceptual understanding of relevant disciplines.

B. MBA graduates will understand ethical frameworks in managerial decision-making and leadership

Students are able to describe issues pertaining to social responsibility.

C. MBA graduates will understand how information technology supports business strategy and operations

Students have the information literacy skills necessary to effectively research, locate, extract, structure and organize the information needed to assist in management planning, decision making and execution. (External readings)

Course-Specific Learning Objectives Associated with this Assignment

1. Demonstrated knowledge of basic global trade theories.

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2. Demonstrated knowledge of the role transportation infrastructure plays in fostering or hindering participation in global trade and humanitarian relief.

The Situation -

You Receive a Request for Logistics Help from Catholic Relief Services

Your company is a global logistics company that has been asked to provide

logistics support by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to provide humanitarian relief

supplies to the City of Ayod in Ayod County, State of Jonglei, Country of South

Sudan.

Assume you have recently read a brief overview about the humanitarian needs of African countries, in

particular South Sudan. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have just

completed a ‘Rapid Needs Assessment ‘of Ayod County, Jonglei State, South Sudan and provided you

with a copy of the report (the report is posted in the Content section for this assignment). Document

posted:

WFP-CRS Rapid Needs Assessment

A detailed assessment of the situation and a response plan has been provided to you. These are the

2018 Humanitarian Needs Report and the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan by the United Nations

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). These are the most important reference

documents for this assignment. You can find these documents and many others, as well as maps by

clicking on the link to the UNOCHA website. The link has been posted for you.

South Sudan 2018 Humanitarian Needs Overview

SS 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan

Other reference sites and materials are also included for Task 1 to help you reflect on your message

discussed below.

Task 1: Your Reflection As a soon-to-be MBA alumni of a leading Jesuit college, you find it important to reflect on Catholic Social

Teaching, the Allegory of the Long Spoons, and the efforts of Catholic Relief Services; in addition your

review of the size, complexity, and potential dangers faced in humanitarian relief efforts to help the

people in Ayod County.

From your reflection you conclude it is important for your company to get involved. As a first step you

need to draft a clear and compelling message that appeals to all 1,000 of your employees and your

Board of Directors that motivates them to support involvement by your company. This message needs to

reinforce the values of your company and their fit with CRS. It needs to be short, 250 words or less.

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This task helps student learning on the Institutional Learning Goal of Academic Excellence – Knowledge,

the Institutional Learning Goal of Catholic & Jesuit Mission & Identity, and MBA Degree-Program

Learning Goal B.

Task 1 for this assignment: Compose your message and post it in the appropriate dropbox.

Task 2: Adapting Business Knowledge and Practices Before developing a plan for participating, you decide to make a list of the private sector practices that

could be of benefit to humanitarian relief efforts. As a reference for this effort you review the following

paper available through the Canisius College library (it is posted in the Content section for this

assignment) or you can access it through the Canisius College library.

Van Wassenhove, L. N. and Pedraza Martinez, A J. (2012), “Using OR to adapt supply chain management

best practices to humanitarian logistics”, International Transactions in Operational Research, Vol. 19, pp

307-322, DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-3995.2010.00792.x

You also realize that coordination between logistics services providers and humanitatioan relief

organizations maybe important for success. So you read the following article that has been posted for

your review:

Jennifer Bealt, Jair Camilo Fernández Barrera, S. Afshin Mansouri, (2016) "Collaborative relationships between logistics service providers and humanitarian organizations during disaster relief operations", Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Vol. 6 Issue: 2, pp.118-144, https://doi.org/10.1108/JHLSCM-02-2015-0008

This task helps to support student learning on MBA Degree Program Learning Goal A.

Task 2: Based upon the research papers, describe and discuss two important private sector practices

that can be used in humanitarian relief as discussed by Wassenhove and Martinez, and discuss using

some of the specific reasons given Bealt et. al. as to why coordination is important for success . Post your

answer in the appropriate dropbox.

Task 3 Developing a plan for participation starts with an assessment of the logistics infrastructure and

capabilities in South Sudan as well as access to Juba from the nearest ocean port than can unload the

food commodities you are bringing. Your textbook identifies the key dimensions of logistics

infrastructure, including telecommunications. Carefully read any detailed logistics assessments reports

and related materials available from the World Food Programme or United Nations. You will need to

search for this information yourself as part of this exercise. You will want to look closely at the Logistics

Clusters developed by the World Food Programme. The search for this information is an important part

of this exercise, plan on spending some time in the search process.

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Discuss in detail the logistics options (routes and modes of transportation used) of how you will supply

food to the city of Ayod, in the county of Ayod in the State of Jonglei in the country of South Sudan from

warehouses in Juba (you cannot use airfreight for it is too expensive). Also describe the route and

mode(s) of transportation needed to reach Juba from the nearest ocean port you select to arrive at with

your food relief commodities (you cannot use airfreight, it is too expensive). Study the different reports

to identify seasonal or closed roads, rail lines that may not work or even exist, telecom that may not

work or exist, and so on. In general do not specify routes that will not serve the population year round

or modes of transportation that will not be able to operate. Remember these are donations, try to

specify the least cost routes and modes of transportation. A simple map helps, but does not tell the

whole story of what you and your team will face in the field.

This task of the assignment supports student learning of MBA Degree Program Learning Goal C and

Course-Specific Learning Objective 2.

Task 3: Describe in detail the transportation routes, modes of transportation (and distances if you can)

that you will take from the Port of Discharge (the ocean port where you expect to land relief products for

shipment inland) to the storage facilities in Juba. Then describe in detail the route you will take and the

modes of transportation required to deliver the products from Juba to Ayod. If products need to be trans-

loaded please state so in your answer. Trans-loading takes time and costs money. You must check if

there are any access constraints on any of the routes. Your team will be responsible for delivering cereals

(HS10), oils (HS12), and fertilizers (HS31) to the storage facilities nearest the area you are helping as well

as to the final destination. Make sure to specify if you are moving bulk freight or containerized freight

and then specify the appropriate type of equipment needed to handle this freight. Details are very

important for this task. Do not indicate what country any products are sourced from for Task 3, you will

be asked about the countries these products are imported from and their export ports and distances in

Task 4. (HS means Harmonized System code)

Task 4 You need to identify the countries that will supply the Cereals (HS10), Oils (HS12) and Fertilizers (HS31).

This movement of specific products in and out of specific countries is the cornerstone of international

trade that is discussed in your textbook. You should review the Heckscher-Ohlin Factor Endowment

Theory from your textbook for Task 4 and Task 5.

Go to the International Trade Centre website to bring this to life for our assignment. Go to the Statistics

Look-Up Tables and then select Trade by Commodity Statistics by country and product group: imports or

exports. This organization is joint venture between the United Nations and the World Trade

Organization. There are several screen shots later in this write-up that walk you through how to access

and use the look-up tables.

Screen Shots 1-7 displays how to access the bi-lateral trade statistics tables. As an example on how to

use these tables we will use Ethiopia (this is an example only, you will use South Sudan for the

assignment). Now assume Ethiopia needs Cereals (HS code 10). See Screen Shot 1.

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Use the trade table of country by product to identify the country Ethiopia imported most of their cereal

from in 2013, it is India. For your answer to this assignment you will be using the most recent data of

2017 that is posted by the ITC. See an older screen shot, Shot 2, below for an example using 2013 data.

Screen Shot 1

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Screen Shot 2

Continuing our example, the first leg of this relief effort leg is to fill 20-ft ocean containers or equipment

for moving bulk commodities (ships for moving bulk commodities not in containers, gains, coal, etc. –

see your textbook). Remember the port you arrive at must have the proper equipment to unload your

vessel. Once the ship lands at a Port of Discharge (Djibouti for this example), the cereal shipments need

to make their way via inland transportation to their final destination. For our example the final

destination is the city of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

Task 4: Distance and Travel Times from the Source Country to the Port of Discharge

For each of the 3 commodities (cereals, oils, and fertilizers) :

a. identify the one country that supplies the most of each commodity to Sudan and identify an ocean

port for exporting from that country. The ITC statistics are for 2015 and only for Sudan, not South Sudan

separately. Please only use the ITC statistics.

b. Identify the ocean port of discharge to unload at for inland transport to the storage facility in Juba.

Please make sure the port you select is operating, open all year round, can accommodate ocean vessels,

and has the equipment need to unload your vessel. Only identify and detail the port itself.

c. Compute the distance and transit time between the foreign port of origin for each commodity and the

ocean Port of Discharge (the port where you will land the relief products).

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You can use the Searates or a similar web site. There are a number of websites that can provide this

information so please feel free to explore different ones and use the one you like best. See the example

below:

Now the ocean containers, barges, or rail cars are now empty and located in Addis Ababa and the relief

effort is over. BUT all the different equipment is still in Ethiopia and needs to move to generate revenue

for the logistics companies.

Because you are a private company the return leg to India needs revenue to defer the costs of

transportation on containerships. So you need to identify what Ethiopia exports to India. You can turn to

the bi-lateral trade statistics tables to identify what commodities Ethiopia exports to India (see Screen

Shot 3). Ethiopia exports edible vegetables to India (HS07)

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Screen Shot 3: Ethiopia’s Exports to India – Edible Vegetables HS07

So bi-lateral trade exists between Ethiopia and India. This means you can fill containers with cereals in

India and empty them in Ethiopia. Then you can fill your empty containers in Ethiopia with edible

vegetables and return them to India.

Task 5: Exports from Sudan Task 5: Commodities, Distances and Travel Times from Ocean Port used by Relief Country Back to Origin

Identify the commodities exported by Sudan to the countries that you used to source the relief

commodities. Post your answer in the appropriate dropbox.

Good luck on this assignment. I hope you find it interesting and challenging.

Dr. Gessner