A maturity assessment model for sustainable humanitarian logistics operations: A comparative practice in humanitarian organizations

Humanitarian logistics operations are crucial for providing timely and effective relief to communities affected by disasters and crises. However, the increasing complexity of global challenges, including climate change and resource scarcity, has heightened the need for sustainability in these operations. To address this, it is essential for humanitarian organizations to assess the maturity of their logistics operations in terms of sustainability. This paper presents a maturity assessment model specifically designed for sustainable humanitarian logistics operations, using a case study of a humanitarian organization. The model incorporates a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework to assess the sustainability performance across various dimensions. In order to make this assessment, 68 actions are defined under four main headings. The four headings and 68 actions are weighted with Best-Worst Method (BWM) by experts in the field. The current maturity levels of two international humanitarian organizations located in Türkiye are measured. The results provide a comprehensive view of the organizations' current maturity levels, highlighting strengths in areas such as social impact and operational resilience, while revealing weaknesses in environmental sustainability practices. Based on the findings, recommendations for improving sustainability in logistics operations are offered, with a focus on enhancing the organizations' capacity for future disaster response. To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first paper proposing a maturity model for humanitarian logistics organizations consisting of 68 different economic, social and environmental criteria in a sustainability framework.