Blockchain’s Efficacy in Removing Obstacles for Humanitarian Supply Chains

Numerous new technologies are emerging in Industry 4.0 era, upending the status quo in numerous industries and sectors. However, there are significant humanitarian problems that affect people all over the world, such as hunger and inadequate infrastructure that affects housing, healthcare, and education. Complex factors including natural disasters, environmental issues, and human enforced factors like poor governance, terrorism, and forcible eviction of members of particular communities are to blame for these issues. Institutions throughout the world are working nonstop to alleviate suffering of those experiencing a humanitarian crisis. Such initiatives are based on humanitarian supply chains (HSC), which are often an intricate network made up of independent contractors, business firms, volunteers from local community as well as international organisations whose goal is not to make profits. This paper’s aim is to ascertain, with help of blockchain technology, which aspects of HSCs will benefit. A thorough literature review identifies obstacles to HSCs. In this paper, using answers from experts in blockchain and humanitarian supply chains, we carry out exploratory factor analysis, which yields four elements with respect to blockchain technology’s use cases.