Future challenges in humanitarian operations and the role of partnerships with academia

I started work on humanitarian logistics some 20 years ago by pure coincidence. As a professor at INSEAD I was called out of the blue by Bernard Chomilier, the then head of logistics at the Federation (IFRC) in Geneva. He was looking for some help with his plans to transform their supply chain by creating decentralized prepositioning hubs. I was subsequently also contacted by David Kaatrud from WFP, who was looking for support to get the Joint Logistics Center off the ground. The Joint Logistics Center, under OCHA's Inter-Agency Standing Committee, can be considered a precursor of the current Logistics Cluster. This contact also led to my first field trip to Afghanistan. I thought I knew everything about logistics after having worked with global commercial companies for 20 years, but the confrontation with the humanitarian context was very humbling. I realized I had a lot to learn. At the same time, I asked myself how I could possibly contribute; a great position to be in as an academic.

At the time, logisticians typically had many years of experience working in difficult and uncertain conditions in the field. They did not, however, have strong internal support since the logistics function was not much appreciated or even recognized. Consequently, there were few support tools, little or no training, and no representation of logistics in higher-level management. Conversely, the commercial sector had excellent logistics organization and support systems, but they were not used to working in difficult and dynamically changing environments, i.e., they did not know how to prepare for, and deal with, uncertain and unforeseen events. Covid-19 brutally showed we are all still struggling with this. Clearly, the world has changed dramatically in the past 20 years. Both sectors have converged a lot more, particularly in logistics and supply chain management, for the simple reason that they are facing similar challenges in the field. The supply chain problems caused by the Ukrainian crisis immediately following the Covid-19 pandemic really drove that point home.

Realizing I could learn a great deal from, and hoping to contribute to the humanitarian sector, I decided to start the Humanitarian Research Group at INSEAD. I am pleased to say the group has extensively and successfully collaborated with many member organizations of the Logistics Cluster over the past 20 years. But more about partnerships between humanitarians and academics later.

Allow me to share some thoughts about the future of humanitarian logistics. For me the key word is CONVERGENCE. Many things are coming together, and this brings great opportunities as well as huge challenges. The system becomes increasingly complex with tight interconnections, making it difficult to predict and control, and requiring constant adaptation. The Covid epidemic being a rude wake-up call, of course. Words like agility and resilience naturally come to mind but what do they really mean? In addition, the constant pressure for better, cheaper, faster can only make the ability to deal with CONVERGENCE more important.

Below I suggest nine forms of convergence and briefly discuss their nature:

1. Convergence between stakeholders: The increased case load and decreasing donor funding force us to partner and collaborate to smartly deploy scarce resources. I am thinking about collaboration between humanitarian organizations in the Logistics Cluster, but also collaboration with private companies, donors, governments and academics. Partnerships are an essential element of success in striving for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG#17).

2. Convergence between technologies: Of course, information and communication technologies are in the first place. They allow for easier data gathering and therefore better analysis to inform and direct our decisions. I am thinking about data analytics and artificial intelligence. But there is of course also convergence of other technologies, like the intelligent use of mobile labs, drones, amphibious vehicles, cold chain technology, genomic sequencing and many others. How to determine where and how these new technologies truly add value and how to combine them to exploit their synergies? i.e., how to move from hype to impact?

3. Convergence between disciplines: I am thinking about climate science and its impact on humanitarian challenges or disasters, and how to use this convergence to better prepare by building local capacity and resilience. Clearly, humanitarian operations also increasingly converge with concern for their environmental impact, i.e., reducing carbon footprint and other potential collateral damage in line with the basic “do no harm” principle. But there are ample other examples of convergence between disciplines, like design sciences and how they can facilitate distribution of (fortified) food baskets. Better design of products and services in the humanitarian sector is an underdeveloped opportunity.

4. Convergence between strategy at headquarters and execution in the field: Closing that gap would substantially improve smart allocation of scarce resources building upon performance-based metrics. Strategy is useless without execution and the latter should carefully acknowledge local culture. As the saying goes “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. Related to this is the need to localize and build local capacity with the right partners, a clearly stated strategic intent of the aid sector in the Global Bargain, but one which is notoriously difficult to implement. Clearly, this connects with partnerships and the convergence between stakeholders (SDG#17).

5. Convergence between disaster relief and development supply chains: Health supply chains have a strong development component but can quickly find themselves faced with a crisis requiring urgent relief operations, like in the Covid pandemic. The increasing prevalence of protracted complex disasters will force us to overcome the traditional separation (in organization and funding, for example) between relief and development operations. This may be another strategic intent of the sector since everyone realizes the necessities imposed by a rapidly changing world, but just like for localization, there is big leap from strategic intent to successful execution. These convergences require profound organizational and cultural changes to a system that has deeply engrained itself, sometimes over more than half a century, not to mention the fact that there may be few incentives or even disincentives to change.

6. Convergence on being more beneficiary centric: I am thinking here about giving a bigger say to the beneficiaries in deciding what they need most. Things like cash and vouchers fit into this category, but so do increased efforts to connect with local communities and organizations. This is obviously strongly linked to localization efforts and increased partnerships, e.g., with local NGOs, faith-based organizations, small and medium-sized companies and entrepreneurs. Most large international humanitarian organizations are simply not well-equipped to successfully implement the necessary changes, despite an increasing demand from local governments. By the way, before the reader may think that I am criticizing the humanitarian sector, let me clearly state that these types of fundamental changes are extremely difficult for any organization, commercial or other and learning from one another, sometimes referred to as “stealing with pride”, is not a bad idea.

7. Convergence with risk management, disaster mitigation, building resilience and infrastructure development: These subjects would deserve an in-depth discussion on their own, but the point to be made is that they are also closely related. Risk, mitigation and resilience are strongly impacted by local infrastructure development. Local populations always benefit from collective efforts on better risk management, disaster mitigation and increasing local resilience. I would like to add design to this since I believe many of our system components, products and services would largely benefit from better design. A good example is the partnership between UNICEF and DSM, which leveraged the unique and complementary competencies of both organizations to improve the diets of millions across the globe.

8. Convergence between sustainability and humanitarian logistics. This is about the environmental and social footprint of humanitarian operations, and the link to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. I would like to invite you to think broader than the use of electric vehicles to reduce carbon footprint. Think for instance about the need to converge around some of the UNSDGs because they are so closely related. Poverty, health, education, inequality, migration, conflicts and refugees can hardly be seen as independent, but they are still very much reflected as independent issues in how we are organized. For instance, WFP, UNHCR and UNICEF, lovingly called sister organizations of the UN family, are still very much independent agencies who, like sisters, have their own character and occasional frictions. And this is clearly not a monopoly of the UN Agencies. Nevertheless, at the risk of repeating myself, logistics is common to all these issues or SDGs, and the Logistics Cluster plays an important role in bringing things closer together.

9. Convergence on the need to reduce waste and duplication: This may be the largest contribution to sustainability and the UNSDGs. Electric vehicles are nice but perhaps we should primarily focus on the large remaining inefficiencies in the way we manage humanitarian fleets, to give but one example. Clearly, this connects again to the need to partner, e.g., in sharing transport services and focusing on mobility, rather than managing our own assets. But there are also many remaining duplications of resources and overlapping responsibilities in the way development and relief operations are planned and executed. Clearly, some of these are related to the bigger system where governments and donors have a large (and sometimes unproductive) impact.

If some of the above would shock the occasional reader, rest assured that I highly appreciate the enormous progress that has been made in the past decade, particularly in logistics. I have been privileged to be a witness and a (modest) contributor. Logistics evolved from being a stepchild to being recognized as a strong and respected contributor in many humanitarian organizations and the results are there to show for. But let me ask you a simple question: “If you could redesign the current system from scratch, would you build it the same way?”. Most probably you would design it quite differently.

I could go on and add a few items to my list, but you get the point, and nine is a magic number. The key word is clearly CONVERGENCE. Different lines increasingly come together and create both great opportunities and big challenges. The system has become so complex that nobody can hope to have a strong sustainable impact by acting in isolation. One needs to acknowledge these system interdependencies and learn how to manage them better. How does one well-intentioned action perhaps create multiple negative reactions at a later stage and somewhere else? Think about a waterbed, where pushing at one end will create bumps at other unexpected places. Collaboration and alignment, i.e., partnerships are necessary to find sustainable solutions as stated by SDG #17. Perhaps a creative way to think about this is to remind ourselves of the common goal and the fact that we are all involved in a collective action problem where all hands are necessary to get closer to the UNSDGs, humanitarian hands, private sector hands, policy maker hands, donor hands and why not, academic hands.

Once again, underlying all of this is the central role of logistics and the importance of the cluster. All development and relief operations converge when it comes to logistics, i.e., how things are done every day in the field. They use the same infrastructure, transport companies, cars and drivers, suppliers and so on. Logistics can play a major role in making things happen, in working better, cheaper and faster, and consequently being a major building block in contributing to quite a few of the SDGs and the CONVERGENCE challenges discussed above.

Let's focus a little more in detail on the potential CONVERGENCE between humanitarian logistics practitioners and supply chain academics. I very much welcome the outreach of the Logistics Cluster to the academic world. There is a huge amount of knowledge that could be transferred and competence to be tapped into, in both directions by the way. But this requires better development of an efficient interface. My IT colleagues would say that the two systems need to be made interoperable. Allow me to list a few requirements for this interoperability:

1. Get to know and understand/appreciate one another better: Humanitarians and academics are very different species. They speak different languages for starters. We need to learn to understand each other's jargon and the different worlds we live in.

2. Appreciate the differences in clock-speed: We are like fireflies versus elephants. Humanitarians need to act on very short notice whereas academic research takes years. This difference in perspective should be exploited instead of being seen as a hurdle. How to combine short term priorities with a long-term sustainability perspective?

3. Understand the differences in objectives and performance metrics: Humanitarians want to solve their current specific problem, while academics are judged on publications in top journals which require the creation of new and sufficiently general knowledge. Interoperability also means developing awareness of these different perspectives and an eye for selecting problems that can serve both communities.

4. Above all, develop mutual respect. Understand that both sides can hugely learn from one another. For one, humanitarians can benefit from the systematic problem analysis typical of the academic world in search for general answers, whereas academics can learn to keep their feet on the ground by working alongside humanitarians. A partnership cannot be one way. Both sides need to give and take.

The above are just a few thoughts. It would be good to establish better rules of hygiene, keep stock of successes and failures and develop do's and don'ts for productive collaboration. I should add that there is already quite some experience about partnerships between academia and practice in many different fields, as well as an abundance of academic research on partnerships. But this is not our focus here. My point is that there are still untapped opportunities for better partnerships between practitioners and academics in the humanitarian sector. Ideally, these would deal with some of the complex convergence issues discussed above where specific knowledge from both fields is required to make a breakthrough. The true value of partnerships lies in solving problems that no single partner can solve alone.

Allow me to illustrate how I have tried to partner with humanitarian organizations through our Humanitarian Research Group at INSEAD. I am not claiming these suggestions are universal principles, far from it, but I believe they may provide a sound base for you to consider:

1. Build longer term relations so both sides truly get to know and appreciate one another. Consider developing collaborations that span multiple years. This facilitates better understanding of what to expect from one another and can allow for open and frank communications.

2. Define clear short-term projects with precise deliverables during this long-term partnership. Try to actively support humanitarian organizations in resolving a fairly pressing problem while keeping your academic eye on generalizable principles. It often helps to also request to be compensated for the resources being allocated (e.g., salary of researchers). Academics frequently need these funds to operate and for our humanitarian partners having skin in the game helps.

3. Academics need to stick to their academic duties. Collaborating with humanitarians on pressing problems does not make us consultants. It merely keeps us honest so that our work can be relevant and impactful. We shall most probably also do some more academic work in the background. For instance, several organizations may experience similar challenges, e.g. in vehicle procurement. Academics are then well-placed to take some distance and find principles or solutions that apply to the entire sector. The results of this work might be impactful, but this process may take a bit longer. Academics also need the consent to use data and publish their findings (obviously only after explicit agreement of the partner).

4. Carefully select the partners you want to work with. For instance, there are good and poor research groups in terms of competence and behavior, a simple matter of fact that holds for all types of organizations, including humanitarian or development ones. From the perspective of humanitarian organizations, understand what the research groups are after. Some may just claim your time with surveys, interviews, and data requests. Sometimes, you may never see them again after helping them out. That may be fine if you enjoy supporting students (and thank you for that), but it does not necessarily help you solve problems. Choose your partners carefully and understand that academics have networks. They can always engage others in the project if they do not have the competence in-house, so you do not have to partner with a lot of academic groups to have access to a broad body of knowledge.

5. Close the loop by making sure the findings and insights of the project are translated into actionable recommendations and test them together if you can. Ask for careful knowledge transfer to your organization, again both ways. Solutions do not mean a thing if the experience is not disseminated, and the knowledge is not broadly rolled out in practice as well as education. Things will not be sustainable and there will be no tangible impact.

6. Use the partnership to spot good talent. It is a way to internalize the knowledge, i.e., seek to hire excellent people who worked on projects with you. Many of our former research assistants currently work for Logistics Cluster member organizations. They are also excellent go-betweens who can facilitate further collaborations. Conversely, humanitarian partners can contribute to guest lectures in academic institutions.

As I stated earlier, these are just some principles we try to apply in our INSEAD Humanitarian Research Group. Our experience is that they work well for us and our partners. Obviously, many other collaboration models are possible and undoubtedly successful. The key message is that both parties need to find a good match and align expectations for partnerships to be both sustainable and successful.

This short paper reminisced how I rolled into doing humanitarian research work while being in a private business school. An oxymoron one might say. It was nevertheless the best career move since I immensely enjoyed the trip, both as a person and as a researcher. I have been privileged to see huge improvements in real time and close to where the action is, and I like to think I modestly contributed where I could.

I see the world rapidly moving to a level of complexity and interconnectedness no single organization, sector, discipline or technology can master any longer. Things hugely converge and we need to see this as an opportunity rather than a threat. That does not make it any easier of course, but there is simply no other option. I somewhat arbitrarily suggested nine types of convergence. These are neither exhaustive nor mutually independent. They overlap and form a complex system wherein touching one part may have unexpected positive or negative impacts on other parts at a later stage. What I called convergence has been termed the need for nexus approaches in other disciplines, particularly in environmental resource management, e.g. when studying water, energy and food security issues.

Faced with this complexity, collaboration and partnerships, as in UNSDG#17, appear to be the only way to kill the beast. We need to tap into all available talent and knowledge, no matter how difficult and perhaps scary that may sound since complex problems cannot be solved in isolation.

I have tried to elaborate a bit on one type of convergence I know well given my extensive experience in collaborating with the humanitarian sector as a hard core academic. I tried to indicate what worked for me in helping both worlds converge and mutually benefit from these rich collaborations. All the above is based on my personal experience hence I do not claim anything in general. My only claim is that I tried to honestly share what I have learned over the past 20 years.