Socioeconomic Inequalities in Women's Undernutrition: Evidence from Nationally Representative Cross-Sectional Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2017-2018.

The objective of this study was to explore the socioeconomic inequalities in undernutrition among ever-married women of reproductive age. We used nationally representative cross-sectional data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, 2017-2018. Undernutrition was defined as a body mass index (BMI) of <18.5 kg/m2. The concentration index (C) was used to measure the socioeconomic inequality in the prevalence of women's undernutrition. A multiple binary logistic regression model was carried out to find out the factors associated with women's undernutrition. The prevalence of undernutrition among women of 15-49 years was 12%. Among them, 8.5% of women were from urban and 12.7% of women were from rural areas. The prevalence of undernutrition was highest (21.9%) among women who belonged to the adolescent age group (15-19 years). The C showed that undernutrition was more prevalent among the socioeconomically worst-off (poorest) group in Bangladesh (C = -0.26). An adjusted multiple logistic regression model indicated that women less than 19 years of age had higher odds (adjusted odds ratio, AOR: 2.81; 95% confidence interval, CI: 2.23, 3.55) of being undernourished. Women from the poorest wealth quintile (AOR: 3.93, 95% CI: 3.21, 4.81) had higher odds of being undernourished. On the other hand, women who had completed secondary or higher education (AOR: 0.55; 95% CI: 0.49, 0.61), married women who were living with their husbands (AOR: 0.72, 95% CI: 0.61, 0.86), and women exposed to mass media (AOR: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.79, 0.97) were less likely to be undernourished. Intervention strategies should be developed targeting the poorest to combat undernutrition in women of reproductive age in Bangladesh.

Addressing critical success factors for improving concurrent emergency management: lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The world is witnessing a difficult time trying to circumscribe the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. The situation has become even more challenging as several natural disasters and emergencies coincided with this pandemic and created a situation of concurrent emergency. Effectively managing concurrent emergencies are extremely challenging. Only by utilizing and applying the knowledge gathered while combating a real-life concurrent emergency, one can further be prepared to face such emergencies. Hence, this study intends to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) having a major role in effective management of concurrent emergencies and evaluate the indispensable links among the factors. Twelve CSFs are identified from Pareto analysis, for which feedback from 46 experts involved in the management of emergencies is utilized. In addition, the revised rough-decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (rough-DEMATEL) approach is suggested to analyze the indispensable links among the CSFs and further, these factors are ranked based on the average vector length. The recent case of concurrent emergency in Bangladesh- floods amid a pandemic is considered to establish the applicability of this method. The findings of this research reveal that to handle concurrent emergencies 'Incremental improvement of proactive measures', 'Resilient supply chain and logistics network', and 'Government leadership and military cooperation' are the most critical factors to concurrent emergency management (CEM). These CSFs play a major role in ensuring the effectiveness of CEM. Thus, this study can be a building block in developing an effective CEM plan for the policymakers, managers, and practitioners.

Challenges to COVID-19 vaccine supply chain: Implications for sustainable development goals.

The COVID-19 outbreak has demonstrated the diverse challenges that supply chains face to significant disruptions. Vaccine supply chains are no exception. Therefore, it is elemental that challenges to the COVID-19 vaccine supply chain (VSC) are identified and prioritized to pave the way out of this pandemic. This study combines the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method with intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFS) to explore the key challenges of the COVID-19 VSC. The IFS theory tackles the uncertainty of key challenges while DEMATEL addresses the interlaced causal relationships among crucial challenges to the COVID-19 VSC. This work identifies 15 challenges and reveals that 'Limited number of vaccine manufacturing companies', 'Inappropriate coordination with local organizations', 'Lack of vaccine monitoring bodies', 'Difficulties in monitoring and controlling vaccine temperature', and 'Vaccination cost and lack of financial support for vaccine purchase' are the most critical challenges. The causal interactions along with mutual relationships among these challenges are also scrutinized, and implications for sustainable development goals (SDGs) are drawn. The results offer practical guidelines for stakeholders and government policy makers around the world to develop an improved VSC for the COVID-19 virus.

Improving supply chain sustainability in the context of COVID-19 pandemic in an emerging economy: Exploring drivers using an integrated model.

Motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges it poses to supply chain sustainability (SCS), this research aims to investigate the drivers of sustainable supply chain (SSC) to tackle supply chain disruptions in such a pandemic in the context of a particular emerging economy: Bangladesh. To achieve this aim, a methodology is proposed based on the Pareto analysis, fuzzy theory, total interpretive structural modelling (TISM), and Matriced Impacts Cruoses Multiplication Applique a un Classement techniques (MICMAC). The proposed methodology is tested using experienced supply chain practitioners as well as academic experts' inputs from the emerging economy. This study reveals the influential relationships and indispensable links between the drivers using fuzzy TISM to improve the SCS in the context of COVID-19. Findings also reveal that financial support from the government as well as from the supply chain partners is required to tackle the immediate shock on SCS due to COVID-19. Also, policy development considering health protocols and automation is essential for long-term sustainability in supply chains (SCs). Additionally, MICMAC analysis has clustered the associated drivers to capture the insights on the SCS. These findings are expected to aid industrial managers, supply chain partners, and government policymakers to take initiatives on SSC issues in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.