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Ms Yemsrach Demissie
(she/her)
BA and MA
Teams and roles for Yemsrach Demissie
Research student
Overview
I am a visiting PhD candidate at a Data Lab for Social Good research group at Cardiff University, UK. My research focuses on strengthening humanitarian healthcare supply chains in fragile settings. It explores how data-driven decision-making can improve the last-mile delivery of essential medicines to vulnerable populations. I am particularly interested in how humanitarian organizations can overcome barriers such as resource scarcity, uncertainty, and weak infrastructures by adopting innovative forecasting and decision-support frameworks.
My research combines academic rigor with practical relevance, drawing insights from humanitarian operations and translating them into tools and recommendations that can enhance efficiency, equity, and resilience in essential medicine delivery.
Research
My research focuses on humanitarian healthcare supply chains, with a particular emphasis on last-mile essential medicine delivery in fragile settings. I am especially interested in how data-driven decision-making, forecasting, and decision-support frameworks can improve access to essential medicines for vulnerable populations. By combining operations research, supply chain analytics, and humanitarian logistics, I aim to generate both academic insights and practical tools that strengthen resilience, efficiency, and equity in healthcare delivery. Fragile and crisis-affected settings face chronic shortages, delayed deliveries, and unreliable supply chains. By leveraging data-driven approaches, we can optimize forecasting, routing, and inventory management—ultimately ensuring that life-saving medicines reach those who need them most.
Thesis
A data-driven approach to enhance the last-mile essential medicine delivery in healthcare operations of the humanitarian supply chain in fragile settings.
Our paper investigates how data-driven decision-making can enhance last-mile delivery of essential medicine, ultimately contributing to developing a sustainable and efficient humanitarian supply chain. Enhancing last-mile delivery in fragile settings through a data-driven approach not only strengthens humanitarian supply chains but also fosters resilience, ensuring that aid reaches those in need swiftly and effectively, even in the most challenging environments.
Funding sources
Biography
- 2024 - Current: Visiting Researcher, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, UK.
- 2022 - Current: Ph.D., Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
- 2018 - 2019: MA, Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia.
- 2014 - 2016: BA, Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia.
Academic positions
- 2019 - 2020 - Head of Logistics and Supply Chain Department, Debre Brihan University, Ethiopia.
- 2016 - Present - Lecturer, Department of Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Debre Brihan University, Ethiopia.
Supervisors
Contact Details
Research themes
Specialisms
- Operational research
- Humanitarian logistics
- Healthcare Operations & Supply Chains
- Transportation, logistics and supply chains
- Supply chain and Logistics Modelling