Lessons gained from four case studies of operations research for sustainable development in South Africa
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Lessons gained from four case studies of operations research for sustainable development in South Africa Hans W. Ittmann1
© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract South Africa is a developing country with many unique and challenging problems. Many of these challenges can be addressed using Operations Research (OR). While industry and many components of the country’s economy are comparable to that of a developed country, South Africa is the country in the world where inequality between the rich and the poor is the highest. Unemployment is unacceptably high; the official rate is close to 30%. A major component of the population is dependent on social grants, while the remains of its political past will be felt for many years to come. Given this brief background it is surprising that OR applications to address many of the developmental challenges and problems in the country remain limited. In this paper four case studies are briefly presented about OR for sustainable development work performed at the major research institution in the country. It is a historic perspective of work done over the past twenty odd years and endeavours to give a view of the nature of the work done, as well as the hurdles and difficulties encountered in the process. Two major challenges identified in doing this work are the need for enough funding for this work, and sustainability. It is indicated that sustainability, in these cases, refers to ensuring that the beneficiaries of the work will be able to continue, and be self-supporting after completion of the projects. Keywords Developing countries · OR for sustainable development · System dynamics · Soft OR · Humanitarian logistics
1 Introduction and background As Operations Research (OR) evolved after World War II, it was inevitable that there would be efforts to spread the use of OR into many different environments. As early as 1957 in his presidential address at the Operations Research Society * Hans W. Ittmann [email protected] 1
Institute for Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS) Africa, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524, Auckland Park 2008, South Africa
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of America (ORSA) conference (Ackoff 1957) raised a question concerning “the feasible and desirable role of operations research in connection with the economic development of the less developed countries” (Wolf 1963). At that stage the international OR community, including prominent OR personalities, already recognized the potential contribution of OR to the advancement of developing countries. The International Federation for Operations Research Societies (IFORS) was established in 1959, and it was only at the IFORS conference in 1975, held in Tokyo, Japan, where formal sessions dedicated to the practice of OR in developing countries were included in the program (Haley 1976). During that conference, Morse and Brown (1976), made a convincing argument for assisting developing countries in building OR capabilities. They suggested what needed to be done an
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