Purpose of this paper
The number of organisations involved in relief work in general and humanitarian logistics specifically is large and increasing, creating new complexity. In this paper we analyse different types of coordination in two case studies. This has implications along many dimensions, including the roles of participants, long and short term development and coordination.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on two case studies, one showing the initial stages of the development of the cluster system in humanitarian relief, the other the post-election crisis in Kenya. The original cases were restructured according to our theoretical framework and analysed accordingly. In total the cases are based on 39 semi-structured interviews.
Findings
We find that the start-up of operations is skewed by the need for a clear disaster declaration for the cluster system. The different roles of the organisations and differing formal requirements create significant problems before and after cluster activation and de-activation. Individual organisations take on many roles in the cluster system and beyond it, both in terms of vertical and horizontal coordination.
Research limitations/implications
The two cases have slightly different foci with the Kenya case relating to a specific emergency whereas the cluster system describes the system itself based on development in several emergencies.
Practical implications
It may be necessary to treat different groupings of organisations differently, ideally restricting access based on the role of the organisation and the stage of the disaster. Participating organisations are of widely different types and the same way of coordinating all of these may not be appropriate.
What is original/value of paper
There is a strong need for more academic empirical research in the field. Combining these two case studies for comparison allows us to learn new lessons about how different approaches to coordination have worked in practice.