Our Mission

Five Key Areas

Our Experience

2012 POMS Best Paper Award!
A paper submitted to the POMS 23rd Annual Conference by three members of INSEAD's Humanitarian Research Team, won the best paper award competition for the Humanitarian Operations and Crisis Management track. The paper is a joint work of KLU’s Professor Maria Besiou, Professor Pedraza-Martinez from Indiana University and INSEAD Professor Luk N. van Wassenhove. Both, Professor Besiou and Professor Pedraza-Martinez are visiting scholars at INSEAD and were former postdoctoral research fellows at the Social Innovation Centre.

The POMS is an annual conference organized by the Production and Operations Management Society. This year’s theme is Socially Responsible Operations, which is developed through 29 different tracks. Professor Besiou and her research colleague’s paper is on “Decentralization and Earmarked Funding in Humanitarian Logistics for Relief and Development". Read more...

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The 4th Conference on Health and Humanitarian Logistics was held on 21-23 March 2012 In Hamburg, Germany.

The focus of this year's conference was "Creating Sustainable Health and Humanitarian Systems" and brought together high level speakers from across the health and humanitarian sectors, including non-governmental organizations, academy, industry, government and military.

Participants discussed the opportunities and challenges on a high level and in an interactive way, which included the humanitarian, the corporate, the political as well as the academic perspective. As an outcome of the conference, NGO's, corporations and governments articulated their priorities in terms of their strategies, policies, and investments differently. The conference also created academic awareness for the research opportunities in the field.

Read more articles of the INSEAD Humanitarian Research Group...

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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 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 best practices from the humanitarian sector to private sector companies operating in a volatile world.

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

• Logistics of disaster preparedness and disaster response
• Multi-sector partnerships
• Fleet management in the humanitarian sector
• Global healthcare supply chains
• Environmental impact of humanitarian operations

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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.

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