principle for characterizing failure in humanitarian/relief supply chains’ response to natural disasters,and describes a Bayesian methodology of the failure odds with regard to external factors that mayaffect the disaster-relief outcome, and distinctive supply chain proneness to failure.Design/methodology/approach – The suggested 3Rs combine simplicity and completeness,enclosing all aspects of the 7R principle popular within business logistics. A fixed effects logisticregression model is designed, with a Bayesian approach, to relate the supply chains’ odds for success indisaster-relief to potential environmental predictors, while accounting for distinctive supply chains’proneness to failure.Findings – Analysis of simulated data demonstrate the model’s ability to distinguish relief supplychains with regards to their disaster-relief failure odds, taking into account pertinent external factorsand supply chain idiosyncrasies.Research limitations/implications – Due to the complex nature of natural disasters and the scarcityof subsequent data, the paper employs computer-simulated data to illustrate the implementation ofthe proposed methodology.Originality/value – The 3R principle offers a simple and familiar basis for evaluating failure in reliefsupply chains’ response to natural disasters. Also, it brings the issues of customer orientation withinhumanitarian relief and supply operations to the fore, which had only been implicit within thehumanitarian and relief supply chain literature.