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Disaster Management and Humanitarian Relief

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Every year, there are approximately 150,000 deaths and 200 million people affected by natural disasters and humanitarian crises (Thomas, 2003). Natural disasters alone, which include various occurrences, cause substantial disruptions such as the temporary displacement of more than five million people. According to the Fritz institute, statistics show that uprooted people from humanitarian crises such as civil conflict and war is greater, with an average of 13 million refugees and 20 million internally displaced people each year. As the biggest worldwide participants in the relief effort in the global community, disaster relief organizations are the forerunners of the help supplied to people affected by catastrophic events. In recent decades, due to the increasing number of disasters that affected all the corners of the world, disaster relief logistics has begun to receive greater enthusiasm and support from both logistics academics and practitioners. Humanitarian logistics encompasses both disaster relief and continuous support for developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to explain the process and highlight the importance of disaster relief logistics and its challenges in providing efficient and effective care, supplies, and shelter to areas devastated by disasters. It is forecasted that over the next 50 years natural and man-made disasters will increase five-fold. This could turn disaster relief logistics into a substantial global industry. In 2004, the

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