Donation-based relief goods distribution problem

Abstract Both government and non-governmental organizations play crucial roles in any disaster relief program, particularly in donating necessary goods to the affected area. However, there are significant differences between these entities which merit careful consideration in terms of effective disaster relief. This paper discusses a relief goods distribution problem composed of government organization (GO) and non-governmental organization (NGO) actors, with the purpose of finding the optimal donation strategies. In reality, the capacity of the NGO is limited; this limitation may result in a failure to deliver relief goods to the needy area in a timely manner. The relation of the received and donated quantities of relief goods was modeled in this study and a conditional earmarking donation (CED) strategy was developed with consideration of the NGO capacity limitation. A bi-level optimization model is proposed for the GO and NGO relief goods donation system. The GO, in this model, is controlled by “fairness” among affected areas while the NGO is controlled by “media attention”, which has both positive and negative influences. In the numerical experiments, the results highlight the advantageous nature of considering the NGO capacity. A series of suggestions are proffered to the GO based on the observations.