Our Mission

Three Key Areas

Our Experience

From Experience to Working on a Better Future

We'd Better Change our Act!

INSEAD Humanitarian Research Group flyer (pdf)

Since 2001, INSEAD Humanitarian Research Group (HRG) has been working to develop the science of humanitarian logistics. HRG strives to increase the capacity of humanitarian actors to respond effectively to the growing number of major disasters impacting the world the today by finding solutions to management challenges affecting humanitarian organisations.

Facilitating cross-learning between those currently engaged in humanitarian action (humanitarian organisations, private-sector, governments, donors, military etc.) HRG works to identify and transfer of best practices from the humanitarian sector to private sector companies operating in a volatile world.

Back to top >>>

The Humanitarian Research Group concentrates on the following three key areas:

• Logistics of disaster preparedness and disaster response:

how humanitarian organisations work between disasters

• Response coordination:

coordinating disaster response programme delivery

• Inter-sector collaboration:

the role of different sectors e.g. private, military, media, between and during disasters

Back to top >>>

Over the past nine years HRG has worked in close collaboration with private sector companies, humanitarian organisations, and private-public partnerships. These include:

• TNT
• The Red Cross Movement
• United Nations
• Medicines for Malaria Venture

We have carried out in-depth research at headquarters and programme level, from Geneva, Switzerland to Gurue, Mozambique, to produce rigorous and relevant research.

To date, INSEAD HRG’s research and pedagogic contribution includes:

• the executive education programme Management in the Humanitarian Sector
• an MBA elective course
• the first book of its kind "Humanitarian Logistics"
• over 15 research papers
• more than 25 case studies

Our education programmes, papers and pedagogical case studies have won awards from internationally recognised bodies such as POMS and EFMD. HRG has become one of the leading research groups on the subject of humanitarian logistics.

The Humanitarian Research Group is housed under the INSEAD Social Innovation Centre, a premier hub for research and learning on the connection between business and society. Our team welcomes and encourages you to explore this web-site and use its resources.

Back to top >>>

INSEAD Professor Luk Van Wassenhove, Director of INSEAD's Social Innovation Centre, together with the Humanitarian Research Group Team, have been monitoring the crisis in Haiti since the 7.1 earthquake struck Tuesday 12 January 2010, including being in touch with relevant NGOs, companies and governments who are providing aid and support to the victims and the country. Keep informed. For updates on resources, donations, research and media or to get in contact with the team, read more...

Back to top >>>

-by Luk N. Van Wassenhove, 17 August 2010-

The humanitarian context is rapidly changing but the humanitarian ecosystem is plagued by what we call the knowledge-doing gap. We see it coming but apparently we are incapable to act. It just seems too hard to change our ways.

Who do we think we’re fooling?
Everyone agrees the humanitarian case load is increasing rapidly while funds are drying up. A child can tell that this means we are driving ourselves into a wall.
Our world is critically inter-dependent and highly non-linear, but we keep acting as if action-outcome links are simple and linear. We believe we shall be able to fix things when they arise. Well, we won’t. We shall increasingly be victims of complex feed-forward and feedback loops in dynamic systems, i.e. we shall always run behind the facts if we do not accept this simple reality and start acting accordingly. For instance, food prices will again increase dramatically because of the drought in Europe. This will put even more people in a life-threatening situation in completely different parts of the world.

These waves of crises will persist. They will even intensify and their effects will be more abrupt and unexpected. We need a dynamic and integrated approach to risk and scenario analysis in order to anticipate major disequilibria and to adequately prepare for timely response. Read the rest of this article...

Back to top >>>