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Monthly DevelopMents November 201324

port resilienCy

THInk ABOUT A HUmAnITARIAn crisis you have lived through or followed closely. What would happen to relief efforts if the port (seaport or airport) through which

the necessary supplies, equipment and personnel were shipped failed or became a chokepoint? nightmare.

the complexity and importance of portsSeaports and airports are among the most complex functional

systems on earth, and the two types of facilities have much in common. They typically have many employees on site, includ-ing many types of highly skilled workers. They are typically the first or second most important economic activity in their city or immediate region. Both are nodes where different modes of transportation and communication come together. Both often represent large, public investments, but also often are the location of huge private investments. They have expensive mobile equip-ment—ships and planes—but also lots of valuable fixed facilities. Lastly, both kinds of ports are often iconic, being the economic and emotional images of their cities or nations.

However, there are also great differences between airports and seaports. Airports and their users are far more highly regulated

by governments and international agencies than seaports. Air-ports rarely have as many airlines operating at them as seaports have different operators. Airports have far more civilians—pas-sengers—on the premises than do seaports (other than cruise ship facilities). Seaports typically have facilities for handling and storing bulk cargos; airports usually do not.

Regardless of type, ports are vulnerable to physical damage, operational conflicts, demand exceeding capacity, and the need for specialized equipment not normally present at that port. They are also vulnerable to civil disorder and epidemics that remove essential employees. Resiliency must seek to reduce the conse-quences of these vulnerabilities.

If a port is in the middle of the disaster zone, it may be dam-aged and need repair before it can operate effectively. even if undamaged, it may require addi-tional personnel and equipment to handle the needs associated with disaster relief and recovery. But key ports are not always in or even near the disaster zone. Sometimes ports a considerable distance away are essential to the relief effort and may need help to handle the demand.

Consider two case studies: a hurricane that hits an island in the Caribbean, and a food crisis in inland east Africa. In the first, the port is in the middle of the disaster; in the second, it is many hundreds of kilometers from the population being aided.

Caribbean hurricane. If a hurricane makes a direct hit or near miss on an island in the Caribbean, it most likely will damage both the airport and the seaport that connect the island to other islands and the mainland. If disaster assistance is needed beyond what the country can provide on its own, it will have to arrive by air or by sea. In either case, the airport and seaport must be

open access is crucial to humanitarian relief efforts.By James F. smith, Technical Director - Port Resiliency Program, AmericasRelief Team; Ferdinand Möhring, Senior Manager, Strategic Projects, Sustainability and New Technologies, BLG Logistics Group; and Daniel link, Chair for Information Systems and Supply Chain Management, University of Münster

Making Ports More Resilient

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once either type of port is reopened, there will be competition between the disaster assistance users and the normal users for port capacity.

Monthly DevelopMents November 2013 25

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port resilienCy

evaluated, repaired and reopened as quickly as possible. Once the airport is functional, at least at some minimal level, aid supplies and personnel will begin to flow. If large supplies of food, equip-ment, or building supplies are required, the seaport will have to be reopened. However, once either type of port is reopened, there will be competition between the disaster assistance users and the normal users for port capacity. Both are needed: disaster aid to relieve suffering, and normal operations to promote economic recovery, which often means tourism on a Caribbean island. Port resiliency efforts must focus not only on the rapid reopening of ports but also on reconciling competing uses.

Food crisis in inland East Africa. An example of a port taking on extra cargos or even new types of cargos would be a port in Africa receiving food aid and vehicles for a famine or drought in a landlocked area. This usually only involves seaports, but airports may also become involved if the famine situation is critical and airdrops of rations are required. One example is the role of east African ports in famine relief in South Sudan from 2007 through 2012. The ports of mombasa, Djibouti and Port Sudan were the primary shipment points for food aid. Port Sudan is the closest to the crisis area, but overland access from it to South Sudan has been blocked for political reasons by Sudan. According to the USAID-BeST study of September 2012, about 75% of all food aid for South Sudan arrives at mombasa and 25% arrives at Djibouti. Both mombasa and Djibouti experience seasonal congestion, but the main operational challenges are with transport between the ports and the disaster areas. There is no rail link. Aid goes by road in 20-30 metric ton trucks. The route from mombasa to Juba, South Sudan, takes at least one week, and the roads are subject to weather delays and border delays. Both mombasa and Djibouti are undergoing port expansion. Where does port resiliency come into this situation? If something were to compromise the capac-ity of the Port of mombasa, it would almost immediately affect the nutrition of food insecure people in South Sudan. Storage at the port, along the route and at the destinations is limited. It is essential to the World Food Programme, USAID, and other aid programs to maintain a steady throughput.

Making things betterSo how can we prevent ports from hampering or crippling

relief work?A resilient port is one that is able to survive stress and continue

to function at a satisfactory level or can be restored quickly to an acceptable level of service.

There are a number of ways to make ports (or any complex system) more resilient. Such efforts fall into five general categories: policy, organizational (or relationships), procedural, structural and defensive. The first three categories (policy, organizational and procedural) are relatively easy, inexpensive and quick to achieve if (and this is a huge if) the port, its owners, operators, users and regulatory agencies understand the need and work to

Monthly DevelopMents November 201326

build the plans and relationships needed to toughen the port and make it resilient. An example of a resiliency measure that cuts across these three categories is the protection of key employees and their families. Another such measure would be priority plans for competing use when a port is stressed by disaster relief activities and normal activities. Structural changes to ports to make them more resilient are generally far more expensive and take much longer lead times. They involve such things as disaster-resistant facilities, excess or redundant facilities, and spare parts.

Regardless of the type of fix, the complexity of ports and the great number of stakeholders involved mean that any effective effort to improve port resilience will require complex interac-tions among many partners: the owners and operators of the port, its regulators, the financial sector, normal users of the port and unusual users such as humanitarian organizations. As a result, public-private partnerships have great advantages for port resiliency.

The first two programs designed to improve port resiliency are underway: the Port Resiliency Program (PReP) of AmericasRelief Team and the get Seaports Ready for Disaster (gSRD) program of the germany-based logistics association BVL International. Both focus on policy, organizational and procedural methods for enhancing port resiliency. Although they arose from separate initiatives, PReP and gSRD are cooperating to learn from each other and expand the applica-tions of lessons learned. Both PReP and gSRD are actively seeking the participation of other ngOs, associations and corpo-rate partners.

PReP has grown from the lessons learned from efforts to reopen the airport and seaport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and from efforts to reopen Louis Armstrong new Orleans International Airport after Hurricane katrina in 2005. PReP is a four-phase program available to airports and seaports. In the first phase, the port does a self-assessment and risk analysis and PReP analyzes the port’s plans and documents; then the port and PReP work together to create a gap analysis. Phase two is a planning workshop to confirm the gap analysis, plan targeted training to address the gaps, and design a tabletop exercise to assess the effectiveness of the train-ing. In phase three, a team of trainers and exercise experts from PReP goes to the port to do the training and the graduation for the tabletop exercise. each port has a custom-designed exercise to test whether the gaps have been addressed and usually involves the highest risk facing the port. Phase four is aftercare in which the port and PReP cooperate to follow and evaluate the port’s progress in implementing the resiliency enhancements. During phase four,

port resilienCy

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structural changes to ports to make them more resilient are generally far more expensive and take much longer lead times.

Monthly DevelopMents November 2013 27

a port that has graduated from PReP may volunteer to mentor a new port in the program. With its initial development primar-ily funded by Fedex, PReP completed its proof-of-concept pilot test at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in February 2013.

In the Humanitarian Logistics Council of BVL International, about 35 organizations from the humanitarian, private and aca-demic sectors worked on specific issues to contribute to humani-tarian logistics’ effectiveness. The gSRD program is an outcome of this work that focuses on improving seaport performance, so that during disasters ports can better handle incoming relief goods and reduce the probability of operational overdemand, thereby also benefitting economic development. gSRD was originally modeled on Deutsche Post DHL’s get Airports Ready for Disaster (gARD) program, which increases airport resiliency. In gSRD, partners from commercial and humanitarian logistics work with local stakeholders to assess a port’s condition and challenges and conduct appropriate trainings, resulting in a jointly drafted agenda to remove the most relevant bottlenecks. For example, replac-ing unnecessary storage within the port with a direct transport of goods to areas outside of the port can significantly increase capacity. gSRD also includes elements for continuous monitor-ing as well as follow-up workshops to maximize its impact and make sure the achieved improvements are sustainable. next steps for gSRD are to form a consortium and conduct a pilot test as a proof-of-concept.

PReP and gSRD are covered in greater detail in BVL Interna-tional’s new book Managing Humanitarian Supply Chains – Strate-gies, Practices and Research, published in October 2013. Besides chapters about PReP and gSRD, the book contains chapters writ-ten by renowned practitioners from humanitarian logistics, both from humanitarian and commercial sectors, as well as contribu-tions from researchers. most notably in this context, Deutsche Post DHL’s goHelp team contributed a chapter about their get Airports Ready for Disaster program. MD

Authors Ferdinand Möhring and Daniel Link led the conceptualiza-tion of the GSRD program and currently work on its implementation.

the work they do by complementing the numbers with anecdotes. If done properly, fundraisers can then take that story and inspire donors to support an organization. What cannot happen is that fundraisers reshape those stories in order for greater value to be placed on one aspect of a message that will resonate more with donors. It is a very fine line that both areas must tread together.

Scott macmillan, communications manager for BRAC USA, explains: “Readers want to know about the crisis at hand and how it affects them, either materially or emotionally. Audiences need to feel a visceral connection to the subject. This is why development organizations too often resort to images of desperation, starv-ing children, and so on, which are so demeaning to poor people. In some sense, it’s actually a value proposition. The message says: It’s worth it for you to give to this organization, because if you do, it will allay some of your guilt for having a good life. As development organizations, we need to work harder to create a better value proposition for audiences without resorting to this approach. We need to do a better job of explaining why progress in the fight against poverty is emotionally relevant.” MD

Comms & Fundraisingcontinued from page 21

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