What's new at the Institute?
Humanitarian Networks & Partnerships Week 2022
The Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks is a three week long conference organised by OCHA, will be held in hybrid format from 2.-20.5.2022 in Geneva. The HNPW is the largest event of its kind, providing a collaborative space for practitioners and experts from a large variety of humanitarian stakeholders. Read more about the conference here.
EURO-HOpe mini-conference 2021
The European Working Group on Humanitarian Operations (EURO HOpe) and the HUMLOG Institute at Hanken School of Economics are organizing the fifth EURO HOpe mini conference in Helsinki, Finland on the 24.-25. November 2021. This year the event will be in hybrid format. Read more about the conference here.
The Universal Logistics Standards Handbook is now available online
The HUMLOG Institute has been involved in the creation of the Universal Logistics Standards (ULS) handbook and also in earlier research regarding the project. The handbook was prepared by the INSPIRE Consortium as one of several outputs from the project “Development of Best Practice and Universal Standards for Humanitarian Supply Chain and Logistics”. This activity is funded and supported by the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations
You can find the handbook here and watch the informal video about ULS here.
Humanitarian Networks & Partnerships Week 2021
The HNPW, organized by OCHA, is the largest events of its kind, providing a collaborative space for practitioners and experts from a large variety of humanitarian stakeholders including UN agencies, Member States, NGOs, the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, academia, the military & private sector initiatives, to collaborate in identifying solutions to common challenges in crisis preparedness and response.
This year the Institute will participate with three interesting sessions:
- Continuity of activities during pandemics: Diego Vega and Félicia Saïah
- The HERoS Project - Health Emergency Response in Interconnected Systems: Gyöngyi Kovács
- A conglomerate of servicescapes: A new conceptualization of NEXUS environment, Diego Vega
And the HUMLOG Institute will be present at the online Marketplace.
Responsible Organising Conference #4 April 2021
This year's theme is “Re-imagine!/Re-organise!/Re-build!”. HUMLOG Institute is participating to the conference with a panel session titled "Response to COVID-19 - learning from humanitarian operations".
Newest blog post: Your face mask impacts the global supply chains
"The Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) pandemic has created a worldwide health crisis with an impact not only on peoples’ lives but also on the global medical supply chain network." You can read the newest blog post by Dr. Ioanna Falagara Sigala, Project Researcher at HUMLOG Institute here.
Series of blog posts presenting the solutions from The HUMLOG Challenge: Team Los Andes
The fifth and last blog post in the blog series is out! The blog post is written by the team representing Universidad de los Andes. Team Los Andes was the winning team of the entire competition with their Water Supply Chain Solution in La Guajira, Colombia.
Read their blog post here!
The HUMLOG Institute's Board Award winner's of 2021
The HUMLOG Institute rewards each year one Master’s student and every second year one Doctoral student who have been writing the best theses in Humanitarian Logistics. The topic of the thesis has to relate to humanitarian logistics and supply chain management.
Master's theses winner
- Hella Abidi (supervisors Wout Dullaert, Sander de Leeuw & Matthias Klumpp)
Performance Management in Supply Chain-Application to humanitarian and commercial supply chains
Honorary mention
- Mojtaba Salem (supervisor Maria Besiou)
Leadership in Humanitarian Operations
Doctoral theses winner
- Charlotte Girardin (supervisor Stephan M. Wagner)
Evaluating the Promotion of Innovation in NGOs – Survey and Interview Based Study beneficiary perspective
Honorary mention
- Clarisse Debalme (supervisor Tariq Masood)
Humanitarian Operations: Using Big Data and Machine Learning for Managing Pandemics
Blog posts from the HUMLOG Challenge teams
Team WU
- The fourth input in our blog series is out! This week, Team WU from Vienna University of Economics and Business presents their Sars Cov2 Testing Solution in Vienna, Austria. Read it here!
Team Houston
- The third input in our blog series is out! This week, Team Houston from University of Houston, Texas presents their solution on PPE Shortage Solution in Harris County. Read it here!
Team QUT
- The second input in our blog series is out! This week, Team QUT from Queensland University of Technology presents their solution on Electronic Waste Solution in Colombia. Read it here!
Team Goa
- Read the first blog post here, written by a team representing The Goa Institute of Management in India.
New Blog Posts
When Staying at Home is No Longer an Option
- Read our newest blog post here, written by Russell Harpring, PhD Candidate at the HUMLOG Institute.
Temperature Control Matters!
- Read here about how temperature control matters in vaccine supply chains by the team of the HUMLOG Institute: Ionna Falagara Sigala, Gyöngyi Kovács, Amin Maghsoudi, Wojciech Piotrowicz, Isabell Storsjö and Diego Vega.
HUMLOG Challenge Winner 2021!
A group of students, who presented a solution to how the indigenous community Wayuu in South America could secure access to safe water for hand washing and hygiene, have won the science competition organised by the HUMLOG Institute at Hanken School of Economics.
During the month of October in 2021, over 400 students from 16 countries and six continents, worked to identify and frame problems found in supply chains within their local communities. The competition entries held a high standard and showed exceptional innovation.
The Los Andes team, from the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, secured the victory with the topic Fog catcher systems in the desert of La Guajira: Analysis of the water supply chain disruption caused by COVID-19. The team investigated how to provide clean water to the indigenous community Wayuu, who live on the Guajira peninsula in northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela.
The panel of esteemed judges was led by Hanken School of Economic’s professor Gyöngyi Kovács. Her thoughts on the winner:
"The problem is relevant both overall to the COVID-19 pandemic, and also addresses the context of the indigenous community of the Wayuu. The team has managed to delineate the problem from the user and health authorities’ perspective and ascertain that the solution is technically feasible, and suppliers and materials would exist in the region. The recommended solution overcomes the problem of shipping water, as well as access to safe water."
In second place was Team WU from Wirtschaftsuniversität in Vienna with the topic Mobile COVID-19 testing in Vienna during flu season. Third place was secured by Team Houston from the University of Houston, Texas, USA with the topic Sourcing PPE during COVID-19 in Harris County, Texas.
The winning team earned both a mentoring session and the 5,000 USD scholarship award that will contribute to their ongoing education.
The HUMLOG Challenge competition was arranged together with the Global Business School Network. Opens in new window
HERoS Webinar October 2020
The HERoS project – which aims to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the response to the COVID-19 outbreak – completed its Rapid Response. This is a big milestone in the project and during the webinar these rapid response phase results are presented.
The webinar will present results from the following deliverables:
- D1.1 Recommendations for governance and policies in the COVID-19 response
- D2.1 Local behavioural model and recommendations for local COVID-19 response
- D2.2 Public health system analysis and recommendations
- D3.1 Gap analysis and recommendations for securing medical supplies for the COVID-19 response
- D4.1 Assessment of the online spread of coronavirus misinformation
The HERoS project is an EU H2020 funded project, led by the HUMLOG Institute, Hanken School of Economics. The overall objective of HERoS is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the response to the Covid-19 outbreak. HERoS creates and provides policies and guidelines for improved crisis governance, focusing on responders to public health emergencies, and their needs to make informed decisions. HERoS further improves the predictions of the spread by understanding and modelling the impact of local behaviour on the spread of the disease. Furthermore, HERoS improves the management of medical supply chains for preparedness and response, as well as evaluates the impact of cascading effects across global supply chains.
The HERoS consortium researchers from humanitarian logistics and supply chain management (Hanken), epidemiological modelling and policy design (TUDelft), crisis governance (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); machine learning and information sciences (Open University), public health services (Nordic Healthcare Group) to space research and geoinformation (Centrum Badań Kosmicznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk), to UAV development (Squadron), health emergency responders (Polskie Centrum Pomocy Międzynarodowej, Croce Rossa Italiana, Project HOPE) and project management (ARTTIC).
More information on the HERoS project webpage
HUMLOG MOOC ‘Introduction to Humanitarian Logistics’ was a success!
1364 people from 120 countries joined our Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).
61% of the participants told that the course was better than they expected and 37% said that it met their expectations. We would like to thank everyone who participated and inform that this course will be offered in the future as well! More details on that will follow later our
Rise in e-commerce during corona crisis has revealed the need for sustainable choices for last mile deliveries
Due to a rise in e-commerce and urbanization there is a rapid increase in last mile deliveries in the Nordic countries and internationally. This pace may increase due to the Corona crisis where many choose to shop on-line in order to avoid crowds.
In a few years, last mile deliveries may impose a considerable problem for cities where activities are already competing for space. The last mile is often the most inefficient, costly, and emission intensive part of the transport chain. The negative effects of transport (emissions, congestion and accidents) become critical in cities where people live and work.
Read more about the project here.
Academy of Finland funds the Cash and/or Carry: The challenges and modalities of delivery in Covid-19 crisis project
The aim of the research project is to analyse the aid delivery mechanisms in complex emergencies, especially in responding to the global Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has caused disruptions throughout the supply chain, resulting in short-term solutions, use of extra resources, and redesign of processes to implement social distancing measures. The project will address changes implemented in the supply chain, especially in-store and in the last mile delivery.
– The project will examine solutions developed in the immediate response phase, especially additional resources used, such as volunteers or military, review technology-based solutions that are used, and changes in processes, with a focus on best practices, says project leader Wojciech Piotrowicz, Director of the HUMLOG Institute and Associate Professor in Supply Chain Management and Social Responsibility.
Read more about the project here.
The HUMLOG Institute's Board Award winner's of 2020
The HUMLOG Institute rewards each year one Master’s and every second year one Doctoral student who have been writing the best theses in Humanitarian Logistics. The topic of the thesis has to relate to humanitarian logistics and supply chain management.
Master's theses winner:
- Krichelle Medel (supervisor Tariq Masood)
Building resilience in disaster management supply networks through cross-sector collaboration.
Honorary mention
- Brenda Farias (supervisors Adriana Leiras & Tharcisio Cotta Fontainha)
Framework for performance evaluation in humanitarian operations from the beneficiary perspective
- Sonja Saari (supervisor Arni Halldorsson)
Renewable energy sources in emergency humanitarian medical cold chain for sustainability enhancing.
An Equitable, Inclusive and Environmentally Sound Circular Economy, Post-COVID
We invite you to join an open forum on how to plan for a Circular Economy transition that is equitable, inclusive and more environmentally sound, especially with respect to climate change in a post Covid-19 World.
As the COVID-19 pandemic touches every aspect of modern society, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the slowdowns and shutdowns may inadvertently enable us to shape a new conception of prosperity and good livelihood. Points of departure for this conversation include:
- Planetary Thinking: Climate Action and the Circular Economy
- Technology for/against the Circular Economy
- Whose Circular Economy? Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice
On behalf of Future Earth, The Greening of Industry Network, International Forum on Sustainable Value Chains, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the HUMLOG Institute
The HUMLOG Institute is the co-ordinator of the Horizon 2020 research project HERoS
The HUMLOG Institute will contribute to the Health Emergency Response in Interconnected Systems in connection to the present OVID-19 outbreak project with its research and training expertise in the areas of humanitarian logistics and supply chain management, including medical logistics, and the evaluation of supply chain disruptions.
”We at the HUMLOG Institute are very excited about this project and are looking forward to conducting research with immediate value to the incredible health care responders and humanitarian organisations working with this right now. As always, research with a measurable benefit to people requiring assistance is at the core of any project we do”, says Gyöngyi Kovács, professor and principal investigator for the research project.
Read more about the project here.
The HUMLOG Institutes MOOC 'Introduction to Humanitarian Logistics' started 6th of April 2020!
It is a 2-week course where participants can understand the fundamentals of humanitarian logistics and discover supply chain management in a humanitarian context. The course has been developed by HUMLOG Institute at Hanken. The lead educators are Gyöngyi Kovács, Diego Vega Bernal and Graham Heaslip.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) will be going live this spring on the social learning platform Future Learn, with millions of users around the world. The courses are open for anyone and everyone around the world.
Signed partnership agreement with World Humanitarian Forum
The HUMLOG Institute is excited to work with the Forum, which aim is to provide an international platform for the world’s humanitarian community, leaders, NGOs and private sector. The event in London, May 2021 (rescheduled due to COVID-19), has a wide portfolio of events, nine thematic theatres, three dedicated exhibitions, two conferences, roundtables, workshops and high-level forums.
There will be three side events at the Forum: Aid&Trade brings together major stakeholders working across the Global Aid and the International Development Industry. The International Disaster Management Exhibition (IDME) is an international platform for the world’s disaster management and response community to exchange science, policy, and best practice. Emergency Show London features advancements in products and services for procurement across the Emergency and Blue Light sectors.
The HUMLOG Institute is looking forward to disseminate research and learn about current issues in the field and to assure that our research has practical relevance. As we are working with humanitarian organisations, the World Humanitarian Forum will help us establish new relationships as well as strengthen current ones.