The HumOSCM Lab partners with WFP to improve Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) response in Uganda
Building on prior projects and following its practice-based research approach, the HumOSCM Lab works with the World Food Program (WFP) and numerous other organizations in Uganda on improving the logistics of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) response.
The external pageWorld Food Program (WFP) requested support from ETH Zurich’s HumOSCM Lab for the EVD response in Uganda. In January 2020, Bublu Thakur-Weigold and Lysann Seifert spent two weeks onsite in Kampala, working with 50 local stakeholders in workshops and small groups. These came from multiple organizations, including WHO, Uganda Red Cross, the Uganda Ministry of Health, UNHCR, UNICEF, and IOM, all of which share the WFP logistics platform to make critical materials available in the remote regions of the disease outbreak.
Applying its practice-based approach, the EVD project builds upon ongoing research on collaboration in humanitarian supply chains. It began by establishing a shared understanding of humanitarian logistics principles within the response team, made up of logistics officers plus doctors, financial analysts, and government administrators. The team then applied its collective intelligence to a number of solution prototypes. According to Oleh Maslyukov, WFP’s Head of Supply Chain in Uganda “there is no doubt that participants will be implementing the knowledge received”. Together with WFP, the HumOSCM Lab continues to analyze data and demand–supply matching processes to improve logistics performance in health emergencies like the Ebola response in Africa.
This project is generously funded by external pageUK aid / external pageDepartment for International Development (DFID).