Hossein Baharmand

• Aboughonim, Ahmed Abdeltawab Abdelgawad S.; Khan, Aima & Baharmand, Hossein (2023). Exploring gaps in using digital delivery mechanisms for cash-based assistance in refugee crises. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. ISSN 2212-4209. 96. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103907.
• Phillips, Ross Owen; Baharmand, Hossein; Vandaele, Nico; Decouttere, Catherine & Boey, Lise (2022). How Can Authorities Support Distributed Improvisation During Major Crises? A Study of Decision Bottlenecks Arising During Local COVID-19 Vaccine Roll-Out. Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making. ISSN 1555-3434. 17(2), p. 166–187. doi: 10.1177/15553434221125092. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Despite the increased importance attributed to distributed improvisation in major crises, few studies investigate how central authorities can promote a harmonic, coordinated national response while allowing for distributed autonomy and improvisation. One idea implicit in the literature is that central authorities could help track and tackle common decision bottlenecks as they emerge across “improvising” local authorities as a result of shared, dynamic external constraints. To explore this idea we map central functions needed to roll-out vaccines to local populations and identify and classify bottlenecks to decision-making by local authorities managing COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in Norway. We found five bottlenecks which emerged as vaccine roll-out progressed, three of which could feasibly have been addressed by changing the local authorities’ external constraints as the crisis developed. While the national crisis response strategy clearly allowed for distributed improvisation, our overall findings suggest that there is potential for central authorities to address external constraints in order to ease common bottlenecks as they emerge across local authorities responding to the crisis. More research is to explore alternative centralized response strategies and assess how well they effectively balance centralized and distributed control. The study contributes to the growing literature examining the interaction between local and centralized response in crisis management.

• Balcik, Burcu; Yucesoy, Ecem; Akca, Berna; Karakaya, Sirma; Gevsek, Asena Ayse & Baharmand, Hossein [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2022). A mathematical model for equitable in-country COVID-19 vaccine allocation. International Journal of Production Research. ISSN 0020-7543. doi: 10.1080/00207543.2022.2110014. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Given the scarcity of COVID-19 vaccines, equitable (fair) allocation of limited vaccines across the main administrative units of a country (e.g. municipalities) has been an important concern for public health authorities worldwide. In this study, we address the equitable allocation of the COVID-19 vaccines inside countries by developing a novel, evidence-based mathematical model that accounts for multiple priority groups (e.g. elderly, healthcare workers), multiple vaccine types, and regional characteristics (e.g. storage capacities, infection risk levels). Our research contributes to the literature by developing and validating a model that proposes equitable vaccine allocation alternatives in a very short time by (a) minimising deviations from the so-called ‘fair coverage’ levels that are computed based on weighted pro-rata rations, and (b) imposing minimum coverage thresholds to control the allocation of vaccines to higher priority groups and regions. To describe the merits of our model, we provide several equity and effectiveness metrics, and present insights on different allocation policies. We compare our methodology with similar models in the literature and show its better performance in achieving equity. To illustrate the performance of our model in practice, we perform a comprehensive numerical study based on actual data corresponding to the early vaccination period in Turkey.

• Baharmand, Hossein; Vega, Diego; Lauras, Matthieu & Comes, Tina (2022). A methodology for developing evidence-based optimization models in humanitarian logistics. Annals of Operations Research. ISSN 0254-5330. doi: 10.1007/s10479-022-04762-9. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The growing need for humanitarian assistance has inspired an increasing amount of academic publications in the field of humanitarian logistics. Over the past two decades, the humanitarian logistics literature has developed a powerful toolbox of standardized problem formulations to address problems ranging from distribution to scheduling or locations planning. At the same time, the humanitarian field is quickly evolving, and problem formulations heavily rely on the context, leading to calls for more evidence-based research. While mixed methods research designs provide a promising avenue to embed research in the reality of the field, there is a lack of rigorous mixed methods research designs tailored to translating field findings into relevant HL optimization models. In this paper, we set out to address this gap by providing a systematic mixed methods research design for HL problem in disasters response. The methodology includes eight steps taking into account specifics of humanitarian disasters. We illustrate our methodology by applying it to the 2015 Nepal earthquake response, resulting in two evidence-based HL optimization models.

• Seddighi, Hamed; Baharmand, Hossein; Morovati Sharifabadi, Ali; Salmani, Ibrahim & Seddighi, Saeideh (2021). The efficiency of COVID-19 testing centers in Iran: A data envelopment analysis approach Hamed Seddighi, Hossein Baharmand, Ali Morovati Sharifabadi, Ibrahim Salmani, Saeideh Seddighi. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. ISSN 1935-7893. p. 1–4. doi: 10.1017/dmp.2021.226.
• Seddighi, Hamed; Salmani, Ibrahim; Baharmand, Hossein; Seddighi, Saeideh & Sharifi Sedeh, Mehrab (2021). Rapid Assessment of COVID-19 Screening Program for Travelers in Iran: A Qualitative Study. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. ISSN 1935-7893. p. 1–5. doi: 10.1017/dmp.2021.219.
• Baharmand, Hossein; Balcik, Burcu; Boey, Lise; Decouttere, Catherine; Phillips, Ross Owen & Saeed, Naima [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2021). Toward a decision support system for COVID-19 vaccine allocation inside countries. NOKOBIT: Norsk konferanse for organisasjoners bruk av informasjonsteknologi. ISSN 1892-0748. 2021(2), p. 1–14. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The distribution of COVID-19 vaccines has proved to be a challenging task for public health authorities in many countries. Among several decisions involved in the task, allocating limited available vaccines to administration points is indeed critical. However, the operation management literature lacks evidence-based mathematical models that could support effective, efficient, sustainable and equitable vaccine allocation decision. This paper develops the fundamentals of a decision support system for COVID-19 vaccine allocation inside countries. The proposed DSS intends to support public health authorities in real-time by illustrating possible vaccine alternatives. The system could also inform and support other actors in the COVID19 distribution for planning and collaboration. Two illustrative cases for the COVID-19 vaccine allocation have been investigated to highlight potential benefits of our methodology.

• Baharmand, Hossein; Maghsoudi, Amin & Coppi, Giulio (2021). Exploring the application of blockchain to humanitarian supply chains: insights from Humanitarian Supply Blockchain pilot project. International Journal of Operations & Production Management. ISSN 0144-3577. 41(9), p. 1522–1543. doi: 10.1108/IJOPM-12-2020-0884. Full text in Research Archive
• Baharmand, Hossein; Saeed, Naima; Comes, Tina & Lauras, Matthieu (2021). Developing a framework for designing humanitarian blockchain projects. Computers in industry (Print). ISSN 0166-3615. 131. doi: 10.1016/j.compind.2021.103487. Full text in Research Archive
• Seddighi, Hamed & Baharmand, Hossein (2020). Exploring the role of the sharing economy in disasters management. Technology in society. ISSN 0160-791X. 63. doi: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101363. Full text in Research Archive
• Baharmand, Hossein; Comes, Tina & Lauras, Matthieu (2020). Supporting group decision makers to locate temporary relief distribution centres after sudden-onset disasters: A case study of the 2015 Nepal earthquake. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. ISSN 2212-4209. 45. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101455. Full text in Research Archive
• Baharmand, Hossein & Comes, Tina (2019). Leveraging Partnerships with Logistics Service Providers in Humanitarian Supply Chains by Blockchain-based Smart Contracts. IFAC-PapersOnLine. ISSN 2405-8963. 52(13), p. 12–17. doi: 10.1016/j.ifacol.2019.11.084.
• Baharmand, Hossein; Comes, Tina & Lauras, Matthieu (2019). Bi-objective multi-layer location–allocation model for the immediate aftermath of sudden-onset disasters. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. ISSN 1366-5545. 127, p. 86–110. doi: 10.1016/j.tre.2019.05.002. Full text in Research Archive
• Baharmand, Hossein & Comes, Tina (2018). Measuring the Quality of Humanitarian Information Products: Insights from the 2015 Nepal Earthquake. In Rocha, Alvaro; Adeli, Hojjat; reis, luis paulo & costanzo, sandra (Ed.), Trends and Advances in Information Systems and Technologies. Springer Nature. ISSN 978-3-319-77702-3. p. 132–141. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-77703-0_13. Show summary

  Information plays a critical role in humanitarian assistance. It has become a product that is shared for multiple purposes such as situational awareness, decision-making, coordination, reporting, and attracting funding. In the aftermath of sudden onset disasters, humanitarians are constrained with huge workload, time pressure, and uncertainties and thus, information products are often criticized with respect to quality issues. In this paper, we aim at developing an empirically grounded framework that can measure the quality of information products through accuracy, objectivity, completeness, and consistency. We validate the framework with the help of practitioners and apply it to the information products of UN WFP for the 2015 Nepal earthquake response. Our analysis shows that the quality of studied information products could be improved with respect to consistency, accuracy, and objectivity. We discuss the implications of our study and propose future research directions.

• Baharmand, Hossein; Comes, Tina & Lauras, Matthieu (2017). Defining and measuring the network flexibility of humanitarian supply chains: insights from the 2015 Nepal earthquake. Annals of Operations Research. ISSN 0254-5330. p. 1–40. doi: 10.1007/s10479-017-2713-y. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The efficient and effective response to disasters critically depends on humanitarian supply chains (HSCs). HSCs need to be flexible to adapt to uncertainties in needs, infrastructure conditions, and behavior of other organizations. The concept of ‘network flexibility’ is, however, not clearly defined. The lack of an unanimous definition has led to a lack of consistent understanding and comparisons. This paper makes a threefold contribution: first, it defines the concept of network flexibility for HSC in the context of sudden onset disasters. Second, it proposes a framework to measure network flexibility in HSCs. Third, we apply our framework to the 2015 Nepal earthquake case and provide evidence-based insights regarding how humanitarian organizations can improve network flexibility in HSCs. Our analyses for Nepal case show that delivery, IT support, and fleet criteria have the most influence on flexibility. Also, the application of our framework on the downstream network of nine humanitarian organizations shows low levels of network flexibility in all but one. This finding explains why several disruptions happened in relief distributions during the Nepal response.

• Baharmand, Hossein; Comes, Tina & Lauras, Matthieu (2017). Managing in-country transportation risks in humanitarian supply chains by logistics service providers: Insights from the 2015 Nepal earthquake. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. ISSN 2212-4209. 24, p. 549–559. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.07.007. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Humanitarian supply chains (HSCs) play a central role in effective and efficient disaster relief operations. Transportation has a critical share in HSCs and managing its risks helps to avoid further disruptions in relief operations. However, there is no common approach to or culture of risk management that its applicability has been studied through recent cases. This paper incorporates an empirical research design and makes a threefold contribution: first, it identifies in-country transportation risks during Nepal response. Second, we evaluate afore identified risks through an expert driven risk assessment grid. Third, we use our field data to study how some humanitarian organizations in Nepal response used logistics service providers for managing moderate- and high-level transportation risks. In this paper, we use both qualitative and quantitative methods. Our qualitative analysis reveals that some of the most important in-country transportation risks were delivery delays; market fluctuations; insufficient capacity; loss of cargo; cargo decay; unreliable information; and ethical concerns. Our quantitative work shows that while participants categorized the first three risks as high-level, the rest were ranked as moderate-level. More investigation in our field data indicates that using logistics service providers (LSPs) helped humanitarians significantly to manage afore in-country transportation risks during Nepal response. It also improved overall HSC performance with respect to flexibility, effectiveness, efficiency, and responsiveness. While this finding empirically confirms the “tools” role of LSPs for managing in-country transportation risks in response, it implies another role for LSPs; “contributors” to performance improvements.

• Baharmand, Hossein; Comes, Tina & Lauras, Matthieu (2017). Towards Designing and Implementing an Empirically Grounded Research for Humanitarian Logistics after Nepal Earthquake. In Hellström, Daniel; Kembro, Joakim & Bodnar, Hajnalka (Ed.), NOFOMA 2017 The 29th NOFOMA Conference: "Taking on Grand Challenges". Nordic Logistics Research Network. ISSN 978-91-7753-337-5. p. 44–59.
• Baharmand, Hossein; Comes, Tina & Lauras, Matthieu (2016). Mitigating transportation risks at humanitarian supply chains: insights from the 2015 Nepal earthquake. In Dreyer, Heidi Carin & Netland, Torbjørn H. (Ed.), 23rd EurOMA Conference. Interactions. Book of abstracts for EurOMA 2016. NTNU Trondheim, Department of Production and Quality Engineering and the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management. ISSN 978-82-303-3277-1. doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.21321.34406. Show summary

  Humanitarian relief organizations struggle with many uncertainties and risks during the response. Through this paper, field-driven insights will be used to discuss how practitioners currently mitigate such risks in relief transportation. The qualitative analysis of collected data after the 2015 Nepal earthquake reveals some of the most important transportation risks that threatened relief operations in response: delivery delays; loss of cargo; insufficient capacity; cargo decay; market fluctuations; unreliable information; and ethical concerns. Research findings explain that using logistics service providers has helped in mitigating transportation risks and improved the overall performance of humanitarian supply chain in Nepal response.

• Baharmand, Hossein; Boersma, Kees; Meesters, Kenny; Mulder, Femke & Wolbers, Jeroen (2016). A multidisciplinary perspective on supporting community disaster resilience in Nepal. In Tapia, Andrea H.; Antunes, Pedro; Banuls, Victor A.; Moore, Kathleen & Porto, Joao (Ed.), Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Federal University of Rio De Janeiro. ISSN 978-84-608-7984-8. Show summary

  Fostering community resilience in the aftermath of a disaster constitutes a significant challenge and requires an adequate understanding of the community’s specific capabilities and vulnerabilities. We carried out a field study in Nepal as a multi-disciplinary research team that explored whether and how the humanitarian response enabled community resilience in the aftermath of the recent devastating earthquakes. We explored three elements of resilience: persistence, adaptability, and transformability by zooming in and out between the local community and humanitarian organizations operating at the national level. Our combined insights from three distinct disciplines, social sciences, information management and logistics, show that humanitarian organizations operating in Nepal still primarily aimed to (re)build community resilience ‘from above’ instead of enabling communities to strengthen their resilience in a bottom-up way. In this paper, we contend that fostering an inclusive and networked response has the potential to strengthen the adaptive capacity of humanitarian organizations and community groups and boost local resilience.

• Baharmand, Hossein & Comes, Tina (2015). A Framework for Shelter Location Decisions by Ant Colony Optimization. In Palen, Leysia; Büscher, Monika; Comes, Tina & Hughes, Amanda (Ed.), 12th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. ISCRAM. ISSN 978-82-7117-788-1. p. 941–948. doi: 10.13140/RG.2.1.4901.1921.
• Baharmand, Hossein; Salvadò, Laura Laguna; Comes, Tina & Lauras, Matthieu (2015). On the Literature Divergences of the Humanitarian Supply Chain, Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management in Mediterranean Countries. Springer. ISSN 978-3-319-24398-6. p. 194–204. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-24399-3_17.

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• Khan, Aima; Baharmand, Hossein & Besiou, Maria (2023). Digital cash based assistance: Qualitative modelling using system dynamics. Show summary

  Digital CBA refers to the use of digital technologies to deliver cash in humanitarian contexts. This study focuses on the selection of cash delivery mechanism in refugee crises and explores the feasibility requirements for using different technologies in CBA. The study uses system dynamics methodology to map the feasibility requirements for digital CBA. The developed CLD is informed by a systematic review of the literature and validated through interviews with CBA experts active in Uganda. The study contributes by enhancing the intuition and understanding for the delivery mechanism selection in refugee crises to facilitate the decision making by humanitarian actors.

• Baharmand, Hossein (2023). «Hans» er bare begynnelsen: Slik ruster vi Norge. Fædrelandsvennen. ISSN 0805-3790. Show summary

  Når landsbyer oversvømmes og veier forsvinner, er vi nødt til å spørre oss selv: Er vi virkelig forberedt? Ekstremværet «Hans» avslører Norges sårbarhet overfor klimarelaterte kriser. Jeg mener at vi trenger umiddelbare tiltak: innovasjon, kompetanse, forebygging, og en styrket rolle for frivillige organisasjoner.

• Baharmand, Hossein (2023). Norskopplæring er en investering i akademia og samfunn. Khrono.no. ISSN 1894-8995. Show summary

  Jeg har jobbet i Norge som utenlandsk forsker i åtte år nå. Jeg kom til Norge i 2015 for å ta en doktorgrad ved Universitetet i Agder, og deretter hadde jeg en postdoktorstilling ved UiA i to år. I løpet av denne tiden lærte jeg norsk på et godt nivå, slik at jeg kunne få den førsteamanuensis-stillingen jeg har nå på Handelshøyskolen ved UiA. Et av kravene for denne stillingen var at jeg kunne beherske norsk. Det å lære norsk gir bedre kommunikasjon med norske kolleger, studenter og samarbeidspartnere. Det er lettere å delta i faglige diskusjoner, undervisning og formidling på norsk enn på engelsk. Det bidrar også til å bygge tillit og relasjoner på arbeidsplassen.

• Baharmand, Hossein (2023). Jordskjelvrammede Tyrkia og Syria trenger akutt hjelp. Hva kan vi lære av feilene fra Nepal? Aftenposten (morgenutg. : trykt utg.). ISSN 0804-3116. Show summary

  Flere humanitære organisasjoner fra hele verden forbereder teamene sine til å reise til Sør-Tyrkia og Nord-Syria for å hjelpe de berørte etter jordskjelvet. Jeg håper hjelpeorganisasjonene denne gangen tar i bruk lærdom fra jordskjelvet i Nepal i 2015 – hvor rundt 9000 mennesker ble drept – for å hjelpe så mange som mulig i regionen. Vanlig bistandstilnærming er så fort som mulig å sende det som er tilgjengelig til den berørte regionen. Men den må raskt erstattes av en målrettet tilnærming basert på vurderte behov og sårbarheter. Hvis ikke kan den veldig lett kan føre til ekskludering av de mest desperat trengende, som folk med nedsatt funksjonsevne, kvinner og barn. I tillegg risikerer man overlapping av innsats, mangel på varetransport og at pengene går til et svart marked.

• Baharmand, Hossein (2022). Norge kunne unngått å sløse bort 120 000 Covid-vaksiner. Forskning.no. ISSN 1891-635X. Show summary

  Nå får alle over 18 år tilbud om booster-vaksine. Vår forskning viser hvordan norske helsemyndigheter denne gangen kan unngå at vaksinedoser går til spille.

• Baharmand, Hossein & Aboughonim, Ahmed Abdeltawab Abdelgawad S. (2022). Doner penger til de krigsrammede. VG : Verdens gang. ISSN 0805-5203.
• Baharmand, Hossein; Sgarbossa, Fabio; Piotrowicz, Wojciech; Ntayi, Joseph & Widera, Adam (2021). (Digital) Technology in Cash-based Assistance in Refugee Crises. Show summary

  Digital technology is transforming cash-based assistance (CBA) with the potential to increase access to financial resources and services during times of crisis while increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of assistance. Innovations based on digital technology range from how main CBA actors (i.e., humanitarian organizations (HOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), donors, technology providers and business partners) identify and verify people eligible for assistance, collect data for assessments and monitoring, in addition to communicate with disaster-affected populations [1]. Digital payment systems, including mobile money, electronic vouchers, electronic cash, and recently blockchain-based transfers – when used appropriately – can deliver timelier, more secure, cost effective, and more inclusive assistance [2]. The growing interest on CBA among HOs, NGOs, and donors (organizations or governments) has stimulated the need to explore using digital technology where feasible. Here, feasibility refers to consider (i) contextual characteristics such as the data infrastructure conditions in the target country as well as community’s preference, technology access and digital literacy; (ii) the relative readiness and acceptance of main CBA actors to adopt, implement and use the technology in target locations. The volume of reports and white papers from such attempts is impressive, however, they tend to converge forming a literature on what digital technologies could do in CBA [3]. The insights often lack critical approach and details on feasibility requirements and therefore, when and where what type of digital CBA is feasible has remained unanswered. As such, the available insights cannot be easily translated to practical action points to support policy makers making an informed decision about the use of digital technology in CBA. Moreover, academic research on technology aspects of CBA is scant [4]; available studies mainly discuss the impact of CBA on beneficiaries (e.g. nutrition [5]). As the volume of data CBA actors collect, store, and share about refugees grows, research could help CBA actors to ensure that their information systems keep pace and that they understand and mitigate for the risks inherent in new technologies. That said, there is a need to research and operationalize the general guidelines and frameworks enabling the responsible use of digital CBA. Our research seeks to answer how to support policy makers at HOs, NGOs, and donors to make informed decisions about the use of digital technologies in CBA. This is the main theme of the DigCBA research project that has been funded by the Research Council of Norway (2021-2024). Project’s principal investigators aim to stimulate the discussion about this topic in EUROHOpe 21 and communicate future steps to the participants.

• Baharmand, Hossein (2021). Hvordan best gi digital pengestøtte til flyktninger? [Newspaper]. bistandsaktuelt.no.
• Baharmand, Hossein (2021). Implications of tradeoffs between fairness, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability for COVID19 vaccine allocation: insights from Norway. Show summary

  In this study, we use a multi-objective mathematical model to investigate the COVID-19 vaccine allocation decision based on effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and fairness. We define four proxies for each objective based on literature review and discussion with decision-makers in public health authorities. Our proxies are 1) coverage of vaccine demands (effectiveness) 2) potential logistics costs (efficiency) 3) Co2 emission of potential logistics (sustainability) and 4) ratio of allocated vaccine to demand (with respect to priority group in each municipality). We solve the mathematical model based on the data for the first four-week vaccination period in Norway (January 4th to January 31st, 2021) considering three vaccines for high- and one low-priority groups (one for each) in three municipalities. As expected, analysis results depict that tradeoffs between demand coverage vs. costs are inevitable. However, results show that improving demand coverage would increase fairness, too; when the model allocates vaccines to high priority groups in all municipalities, the fairness score increases considerably. Sustainability remained the same in all alternative solutions though, as we considered very few municipalities and a rather short time frame in our experiment. We also compare our results with the allocation decision of Public Health Institute in Norway and show how our model could support increasing the fairness of allocation. This abstract is connected to the CONTRA (COVID19 Technology-based Responsive Action) research project funded by the Research Council of Norway.

• Baharmand, Hossein (2021). Mixed-methods research: An exciting journey from field study to mathematical modelling! .
• Baharmand, Hossein & Haaland, Hanne (2021). Kontantbasert bistand trenger langsiktig planlegging . Agderposten. ISSN 0805-3723.
• Baharmand, Hossein (2021). Koronasmitten i store norske byer stiger igjen. Fædrelandsvennen. ISSN 0805-3790. Show summary

  Våre prediksjoner viser høyere smittetall i Bergen, Kristiansand og Trondheim i dagene fremover. Dessverre er ikke disse byene blant de prioriterte kommunene som får flere vaksinedoser, skriver kronikkforfatteren, som har vært med å lage en trendanalyse for koronasmitte, basert på kunstig intelligens.

• Baharmand, Hossein (2021). Saving lives by making Covid-19 vaccine distribution more cost efficient and fair .
• Baharmand, Hossein (2021). DSS Development in the CONTRA Project.
• Baharmand, Hossein (2020). CONTRA Project - Status and Future Steps.
• Baharmand, Hossein & Phillips, Ross Owen (2020). Covid-19 vaksine: tiden er knapp for planlegging av effektiv distribusjon. Forskning.no. ISSN 1891-635X. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Etter et intenst kappløp om utvikling av Covid-19 vaksiner, er det nå tre gode vaksinekandidater. To av disse vaksinene ser ut til å gi over 90 prosent beskyttelse mot viruset. At beskyttelsesgraden er såpass høy er gledelig, men vaksinene med høyeste beskyttelsesgrad har egenskaper som gir krevende logistiske utfordringer for distribusjon til befolkningen.

• Baharmand, Hossein (2020). Distribution of COVID19 Vaccine: a decision support system. Show summary

  Public health officials worldwide often aim to deliver vaccines to targets effectively (in the right quantity and condition), efficiently (with the lowest costs and on-time), sustainably (with as few environmental effects as possible), and fairly (with different targets get vaccines at the same time). However, the goals are difficult to achieve given the uncertainties, limited resources, and potential disruptions. For instance, vaccines must be transported to refrigerated national storage facilities by cooling-enabled transportation means, which are often hard-to-find or limited. Or, roads might be blocked spontaneously due to heavy snow, and adhoc decisions must be made to reschedule vaccine transportation. This research deals with the supply chain problem of distributing the COVID-19 vaccine inside countries: from countries’ entry points (like international airports) to regional health facilities. Assuming everything goes to plan, around 12 months from now, the first COVID-19 vaccines will start to roll out of one manufacturer (or multiple ones) in bulk. The current discussion in national public health authorities is about how the most promising vaccine candidates could be delivered to the vaccine administration points effectively, efficiently, sustainably and fairly. The problem all comes down to Covid19 vaccine supply chain. A typical vaccine supply chain consists of four key parts namely product, production, allocation, and distribution. Most vaccines are sensitive products; if they get too hot or too cold, they’ll lose their potency and no longer work as effectively. So, transporting vaccines requires the highest quality of transportation equipment, strict temperature control, and robust operations planning called “Cold Chain”. In the cold chain and from national to regional facilities, clinics, or pharmacies, vaccines are usually hauled overland by truck or motorcycle - sometimes even being walked the final leg on the back of a healthcare worker. Besides the cooling challenge, social distancing measures, redeployment of frontline workers, and the possibility of large numbers of people falling sick could further disrupt the COVID-19 vaccine distribution. I lead a research project which aims to develop a decision support system based on mathematical models for publich health authorities to design an effective, efficient, sustainable, and fair COVID-19 vaccine supply chain inside countries. We aim to consider uncertainties like the number of vaccines needed or potential disruptions in the road network in our final system. The research project has been funded by the Norwegian Research Council for 18 months and gathers eight researchers and an SME from Norway, Belgium, and Turkey.

• Baharmand, Hossein (2019). Implications of the Blockchain Technology for the Humanitarian Sector.
• Baharmand, Hossein (2019). Topics in Distributed Ledger Technology; Blockchain For Humanitarian Assistance.
• Baharmand, Hossein (2019). Planning for Relief Distribution after Sudden onset Disasters.
• Baharmand, Hossein (2019). Topics in Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management: Basic Concepts.
• Baharmand, Hossein (2019). Towards a Capability Maturity Model for Blockchain Projects in the Humanitarian Sector: Insights from Cash Transfer Pilots.
• Baharmand, Hossein & Comes, Tina (2015). Improving the coordination and decision-making process in humanitarian relief operations through integrated distribution plans.
• Baharmand, Hossein; Khan, Aima; Maghsoudi, Amin; Ntayi, Joseph; Widera, Adam & Abdelgawad, Ahmed Abdeltawab [Show all 10 contributors for this article] (2022). DigCBA – Project Annual Report #1. Universitetet i Agder. ISSN 978-82-8427-126-2.
• Abdelgawad, Ahmed Abdeltawab; Khan, Aima & Baharmand, Hossein (2022). DigCBA D1.2–Digital Cash-Based Assistance Technologies: Literature Review Report and Gap Analysis. Universitetet i Agder. ISSN 978-82-8427-124-8.
• Baharmand, Hossein; Balcik, Burcu; Birkeland, Asle; Boey, Lise; Decouttere, Catherine & Fossli, Håvard [Show all 10 contributors for this article] (2022). Project report #4 – Final report: System Demonstration and Validation . Universitetet i Agder. ISSN 978-82-8427-075-3.
• Baharmand, Hossein; Balcik, Burcu; Boey, Lise; Decouttere, Catherine; Fossli, Håvard & Kjøndal, Jan Ove [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2022). Project report #3: Vaccine supply chain decision support system. Universitetet i Agder. ISSN 978-82-8427-060-9. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The project "COVID-19 Network Technology-based Responsive Action" (CONTRA) started in June 2020. The CONTRA project initially aimed to develop a decision support system to support public health responders to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine effectively, efficiently, sustainably, and fairly. However, over the course of the project, also shown in this report, we found two important factors. First, the central allocation problem is the core of vaccine distribution inside countries: allocating different vaccines from national storage point to municipalities and regions. Second, optimizing the central vaccine allocation only based on the equity criterion could have two advantages. (a) It helps to avoid unnecessary trade-offs between several objectives that could prolong the decision-making process. (b) Based on observations that show the same behavior of effectiveness and equity measures for the central allocation problem, focusing on either of them would guarantee the other. This report summarizes the actions and results in the project, as of work package (WP) WP 3 in the period June - December 2021. In WP3, we design the decision support dashboard based on the mathematical model that we developed in WP2. We are grateful to the professionals at public health authorities and partnered businesses who have contributed with their time and expertise, and look forward to further collaboration. The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway (agreement No. 312773).

• Balcik, Burcu; Akca, B; Yucesoy, E; Andersen, Per-Arne; Boey, Lise & Baharmand, Hossein (2021). Project report #2: Mathematical Modelling and Performance Measurement. Universitetet i Agder. ISSN 978-82-8427-036-4.
• Baharmand, Hossein; Balcik, Burcu; Decouttere, Catherine; Phillips, Ross Owen; Saeed, Naima & Vandaele, Nico (2020). CONTRA Project report #1: Requirements identification and system mapping . Universitetet i Agder. ISSN 978-82-8427-006-7. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The research project “COVID-19 Network Technology-based Responsive Action” (CONTRA), funded by the Research Council of Norway, commenced in June 2020. The CONTRA project develops a decision support system (DSS) based on mathematical modeling and stochastic optimization, and machine learning tools for designing a robust COVID-19 vaccine distribution network. The project follows two main objectives within two phases. In response to the on-going COVID-19 outbreak, rapid analyses will provide actionable advice to public health authorities in Norway regarding vaccine distribution and delivery to responders. This phase involved a systematic study of vaccine distribution system actors in Norway and their decision-making needs. Based on such insights, the project will develop a DSS based on mathematical models to support designing the vaccine distribution network. The DSS should contribute to the effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and sustainability of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution. The proposed solution will also support vaccine distribution in future pandemics. The report describes the results of the first work package (WP) in the CONTRA project. The WP1 aims to identify the key actors in the vaccine distribution network in Norway, map their relation to each other, and distinguish critical decisions in the system. Moreover, the report presents an overview of related research on vaccine distribution networks, related decision support systems, and the progress in the literature about the COVID-19 pandemic. Through preliminary interviews, document review, and a workshop with multiple representatives from Norwegian public health authorities, the current vaccine distribution system is analyzed, and its actors have been mapped. This system map is the basis for further discussion both within the project team and with stakeholders. It should be noted that this map will change throughout the project due to the additional insights from other validation opportunities and the fact that the COVID-19 context is dynamic and is changing permanently. However, the system map has served as a basis for the problem definition in the CONTRA project. Based on our findings from the stakeholder workshop and system mapping, we have decided to focus on defining and studying the central vaccine allocation problem (CVAP), which is faced by Public Health Institute (FHI). As such, the CONTRA will investigate the problem of determining the amount of each vaccine to be shipped to every municipality. CVAP is challenged by the scarce amount of vaccines, the current immunization level, population, and priority groups in each municipality. In our project, CVAP will be formulated as a multi-objective resource allocation problem. Specifically, we will define and formulate objectives related to the following performance dimensions: efficacy (e.g., total coverage, coverage per priority group, etc.), efficiency and sustainability (e.g., logistics costs, waste), and fairness (e.g., distribution of efficacy among municipalities). The next step in the project will be to validate the problem definition and develop the mathematical model (second work package). Moreover, two individual reports for the actors map and system map will be published in the upcoming months by project partners.

• Baharmand, Hossein (2018). Designing Flexible Relief Distribution Networks for Sudden-onset Natural Disaster Response. Universitetet i Agder. ISSN 978-82-7117-905-2.

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