The Effect of Supply Chain Resilient Strategies on Operational Performance of Humanitarian Organisations in Zimbabwe During the Covid-19 Period

Abstract

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the supply chains, and this created acute shortages of materials and products in both local and global markets. This situation demanded humanitarian organisations to implement supply chain resilient strategies in order to secure the 
supplies of their procurement requirements on time and keep their operations running. This study, therefore, examined the effects of supply chain resilience strategies on operational performance of humanitarian relief organisations in Zimbabwe during the Covid-19 period. A pragmatic research philosophy and a descriptive survey research design were employed. A sample of 28 supply chain professionals from humanitarian relief organisations was randomly selected from a targeted population of 30 for the questionnaire and 25 of them responded whereas interviews were conducted with 5 supply chain management professionals. 
Quantitative data were scrutinized by means of SPSS & AMOS programmes (versions 22.0) whilst qualitative data from interview was analysed using thematic scrutiny. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to determine the results and convergent validity of the measurement model was tested. The study findings show that supply chain resilience strategies have positive significant effect on operational performance of humanitarian relief organisations during the Covid-19 period. The study concluded that, in Zimbabwe, humanitarian relief are familiar with supply chain resilient strategies and that the supply chain resilient strategies which were analysed have a positive and significant effect on material availability, delivery flexibility and delivery time. The study recommends humanitarian relief organisations to be agile in their supply chain departments, to push for cross sector collaborations and to implement   supply chain preparedness strategies as this is critical in improving their operational performance during Covid-19 period.