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Since the first publications on humanitarian operations, researchers have been concerned about the impact of our research on humanitarian practice. This paper seeks to better understand the gap between research and practice and, thus, how to narrow it. We incorporate not only the research perspective, through a review of 640 abstracts in humanitarian operations and a survey of the author community, but also the practitioner perspective, through 18 interviews with experienced humanitarian practitioners and a review of 131 practitioner conference proceedings. We assess the extent of practice impact, and find limited but important instances. We identify new barriers to achieving practice impact from the practitioner perspective. Finally, we develop a framework for describing the depth and reach of practice impact achieved by a research project, with a description of many ways in which such impact may be (and has been) achieved. We hope these efforts enable greater researcher accountability to practitioners and clearer paths to practice impact for the field.
An estimated 305 million people required humanitarianassistance in 2025, even as official donor fundingcontinued to contract. Under these constraints,logistics — historically treated as an operational lineitem — is a determinant of whether responses happenat all, and transportation choices about modalities,providers, and financial arrangements shape deliverytimelines, geographic reach, and operational risk. Yetevidence on when donated transport is used, howdecisions are made on both sides of the partnership,and what effects these arrangements have onresponse capacity remains limited. This report providesempirical evidence on when these partnerships areactivated, how they create value, and where they canbe strengthened.
Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM) has continually evolved, incorporating a broad array of strategies, frameworks, and technologies to address complex challenges across industries. This encyclopedic article provides a comprehensive overview of contemporary strategies, tools, methods, principles, and best practices that define the field’s cutting-edge advancements. It also explores the diverse environments where OSCM principles have been effectively implemented. The article is meant to be read in a nonlinear fashion. It should be used as a point of reference or first-port-of-call for a diverse pool of readers: academics, researchers, students, and practitioners.
Humanitarian supply chains in 2025 operated under a new kind of pressure. The crises were familiar—
protracted conflicts in Sudan, Gaza, and Ukraine; climate-driven disasters across the Indo-Pacific and the Sahel; displacement at record levels. But the
environment around the response hanged dramatically as donor funding contracted and the gap between needs and resources widened to historic proportions.
The central question became whether those gains could survive a funding squeeze. This 2025 annual global survey by CHORD—a partnership between Kühne Logistics University and HELP Logistics—gathered responses from 226 supply chain professionals across diverse humanitarian actors, regions, and operational levels. Nearly seven in ten
respondents work at the national level, in field and country offices, making these findings a window into
operational reality rather than institutional aspiration.
In this essay, our analysis takes important insights on diversity and inclusion from the behavioral literature but critically contextualizes them against the reality of humanitarian operations. Humanitarian operations are characterized by system immanent diversity, particularly between local and expatriate aid workers, who not only bring valuable different perspectives to the table but also differ along multiple dimensions of diversity into a so-called diversity faultline. Such a faultline, however, provides fertile ground for continued conflict resulting in relational fractures and, ultimately, inefficient collaboration. While, in theory, inclusion could help overcome the negative effects of faultlines, in practice, the time pressure for humanitarian organizations to quickly respond to disasters makes it effectively impossible to engage in it. Against this background, we argue, humanitarian organizations should take preemptive action before disaster strikes. Specifically, we posit that the pre-disaster phase presents an opportunity to engage in inclusion in order to cultivate relational resilience between local and expatriate aid workers. Such resilience would enable them to not only better weather the inevitable relational fractures during a disaster response (and thus stay more functional throughout), but also quickly realign with each other in the post-disaster phase. We conclude with a set of concrete recommendations for practicing inclusion in the pre-disaster phase.
Problem definition: Emergency medical services (EMS) in many low- and middle-income countries utilize decentralized platforms coordinating independent ambulance providers. However, significant operational challenges arise from uncertainty in provider time availability and unpredictable idle locations. These uncertainties hinder reliable service coverage and negatively impact patient outcomes. Using data from our partner Flare in East Africa regarding their operations in Nairobi, Kenya, we investigate the relative effectiveness of enhancing provider temporal commitment (time availability) versus spatial commitment (strategic location) to improve system coverage.
Methodology/results: We employ optimization models tailored to ambulance commitment uncertainty, a detailed case study, data-driven simulations, and a game-theoretic model. Our findings quantify a stark “cost of decentralization”: the coverage provided by Flare’s 340 loosely committed ambulances could potentially be matched by fewer than 15 optimally deployed fully committed units. We find that enhancing spatial commitment typically yields substantially larger coverage gains than increasing time availability alone, and that both dimensions are strongly complementary. Simulations validate these effects under stochastic demand, simultaneous calls, and strategic relocation. A stylized free-entry model, in which time- and spatially committed providers enter until profits vanish, shows that spatial commitment dominates except at very low temporal availability and that adding spatially committed units typically yields higher marginal value by filling geographic gaps. Together, all three approaches highlight the significant value of spatial coordination.
Managerial implications: For managers of decentralized EMS platforms, the main priority should be to enhance spatial coordination. This can be achieved by deploying a small number of platform-controlled, location-flexible units or by incentivizing providers to relocate strategically, both of which are especially effective at closing the system’s most critical coverage gaps. Because these benefits persist even when accounting for stochastic demand, simultaneous calls, and potential strategic behavior by independent providers, managers need not account for every contingency when evaluating interventions; focusing on closing persistent geographic gaps yields robust performance gains in resource-constrained settings.
Profound challenges, including the ongoing conflict in
Syria, Sudan, the war in Ukraine, Gaza, and Lebanon
as well as severe flooding in South Asia, marked
the humanitarian landscape in 2024. These crises
emphasized the central role of supply chains in
delivering aid to the most vulnerable populations.
Annual global surveys led by CHORD—a partnership
between Kühne Logistics University and HELP
Logistics—have gathered nearly 2,800 expert responses
since 2021—435 of which were collected in 2024.
The insights gathered in this report paint a vivid picture
of progress and persistent barriers in humanitarian
supply chains.
Profound challenges, including the ongoing conflict in Syria, Sudan, the war in Ukraine, Gaza, and Lebanon as well as severe flooding in South Asia, marked the humanitarian landscape in 2024. These crises emphasized the central role of supply chains in delivering aid to the most vulnerable populations. Annual global surveys led by CHORD—a partnership between Kühne Logistics University and HELP Logistics—have gathered nearly 2,800 expert responses since 2021—435 of which were collected in 2024. The insights gathered in this report paint a vivid picture of progress and persistent barriers in humanitarian supply chains.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to draw insights from the rich literature on humanitarian operations efforts to combat human trafficking; second, to inspire humanitarian operations researchers to work more on human anti-trafficking.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper inspired by recent relevant reports, the academic literature and the authors’ years of involvement in both humanitarian operations and anti-trafficking.
Findings
Humanitarian supply chains and human trafficking supply chains very often operate in the same environments and hence face similar challenges. The paper highlights the overlaps between the two domains and demonstrates how two decades of learnings from humanitarian supply chain literature can help improve the understanding of the more recent academic field of human trafficking supply chains significantly.
Research limitations/implications
This study is conceptual and illuminates numerous opportunities for research in anti-trafficking.
Practical implications
By inspiring more research on anti-trafficking, this paper hopes to facilitate enhancements to human trafficking operation to prevent more cases and protect victims.
Social implications
There is an opportunity to increase the effectiveness of anti-trafficking activities, disrupt human trafficking and enlarge the “humanitarian space.”
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to discuss human trafficking operations in relation to humanitarian supply chains.
Humanitarian crises create a precarious environment for those affected, requiring rapid and effective action. At the same time, limited funding and resources force humanitarian organizations to explore new ways of operating. The many organizations involved must therefore work together and coordinate their efforts in order to optimize the disaster response according to the assessed needs. Such coordination represents the cornerstone of an effective response, but it must be well-planned and efficiently executed to make the best possible use of scarce resources.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are at the core of present-day health and humanitarian logistics. Aid organizations advocate inclusive people-centered approaches to ensure that affected communities receive appropriate aid in an effective and equitable way. Tensions and even conflicts can arise if affected communities perceive the distribution of aid as inequitable. These perceptions are driven by people’s so-called distributional preferences. These preferences are shaped by culture, social bonds, and experiences, and they describe how an individual’s well-being and behavior are impacted by potential inequalities. Their importance is increasingly recognized by aid organizations, but research on equity in health and humanitarian logistics remains focused on equal access and prioritizing needs. Using current examples from the Syrian and Rohingya refugee crises, we show the importance of recognizing and managing distributional preferences. Based on these examples and in line with DEI principles, we discuss several ways that we, as the operations community, can help conceptualize inclusive and people-centered approaches that account for distributional preferences.
Several low- and middle-income countries’ emergency transportation systems (ETSs) do not have a centralized emergency number. Instead, they have many independent ambulance providers, each with a small number of ambulances. As a result, ETSs in these contexts lack coordination and ambulances. Using a free-entry equilibrium model, we show that in such decentralized systems, the probability that any given call can be served by at least one ambulance, that is, its coverage, is at most 71.54%, regardless of the ETS’s profitability. We examine three business models that can address the ETS’s lack of coordination and ambulances: (i) a competitor-only business model, where an entrepreneur enters the ETS and acquires ambulances to compete with existing providers; (ii) a platform business model, where an entrepreneur coordinates existing providers; and (iii) an innovative platform-plus business model, where an entrepreneur combines (i) and (ii): setting-up a platform and acquiring platform-owned ambulances. We also examine a government-run platform that takes no commissions from providers. Using a game-theoretic approach, we find that it is optimal for all platform models to incentivize all providers to join. However, only the government-run platform may incentivize providers to acquire additional ambulances. Furthermore, a government-run platform offers higher coverage than a platform-plus only when the platform’s power to coordinate ambulance providers is moderate. Our results can help entrepreneurs and policymakers in LMICs navigate various tradeoffs in improving their countries’ ETS.
In 'Fish and Ships' players engage in the competitive realm of commercial fishing, where the goal is to amass the highest wealth by the end of seven rounds. With each round lasting roughly 10-15 minutes, participants navigate a sequence of strategic decisions to optimize their fishing operations and financial standing. The game unfolds with players ordering new ships, strategically deploying them to different ocean regions, taking loans, and reaping revenue while managing costs. Expected to span approximately 100 minutes, the game can catalyze discussions encompassing several pertinent themes around the Public Goods Dilemma. It provides a platform for exploring various solutions to this dilemma, ranging from state-based, market-based, to community-based solutions. Additionally, the game offers an opportunity for an in-depth examination of collaborative game theory and its implications, as well as fostering discussions on policy mechanisms such as C02 taxes or Cap-and-trade systems where a government sets an emissions cap and issues emission allowances to companies consistent with that cap.
A swift disaster response depends on effective preparedness measures, and prepositioning relief stocks is one key preparedness strategy. By strategically positioning supplies near potential crisis zones, humanitarian actors can reduce response times and costs. However, prepositioning faces significant challenges, including limited funding, poor stock management, insufficient visibility, and weak coordination across the humanitarian sector. The Emergency Supply Prepositioning Strategy (ESUPS) initiative addresses these pressing challenges through its three pillars: Data collection, data analysis, and advocacy and communications. ESUPS’ STOCKHOLM platform (STOCK of Humanitarian Organisations Logistics Mapping) aggregates, visualises, and analyses data on prepositioned relief stocks. Through its platform and its advocacy and communications efforts, ESUPS enables better coordination and strategic decision-making in logistics.
This paper aims to provide a discussion on the interface and interactions between data, analytical techniques and impactful research in humanitarian health supply chains. New techniques for data capturing, processing and analytics, such as big data, blockchain technology and artificial intelligence, are increasingly put forward as potential “game changers” in the humanitarian field. Yet while they have potential to improve data analytics in the future, larger data sets and quantification per se are no “silver bullet” for complex and wicked problems in humanitarian health settings. Humanitarian health supply chains provide health care and medical aid to the most vulnerable in development and disaster relief settings alike. Unlike commercial supply chains, they often lack resources and long-term collaborations to enable learning from the past and to improve further.
To maintain future supplier competition, manufacturers may support financially distressed suppliers by sourcing from them, even if they are less efficient than competitors, and by procuring larger quantities from them at higher prices. We analyze these strategies in a model in which a manufacturer decides for one of two available suppliers, supplier bankruptcy risk is endogenous, and financial distress can lead to internal or external reorganization. Following bankruptcy, the remaining supplier may serve as a backup option. Our research identifies settings in which the manufacturer should support the distressed supplier. We also find that in some cases, a nondistressed supplier may charge price premiums due to its competitor's distress, while in other cases, it may use predatory pricing to drive its competitor into bankruptcy. We complement our results with a small case study and show how our model can explain patterns observed in industry.
African logistics and supply chain management capabilities are essential to the performance of the continent's commercial and humanitarian supply chains. This study reviewed the challenges for researchers and practitioners in advancing logistics and supply chain performance through developing appropriate capabilities. A literature review and landscape mapping were followed by semi-structured interviews with 45 stakeholders from industry bodies, academia, funding bodies, consultants, specialists, and academics, confirming the capability and opportunity gaps in the current landscape. A meta-framework for sustainable institutional capacity development was constructed based on the empirical data that was gathered, and supply chain capacity development recommendations were proposed.
Shifting the food system to a more sustainable one requires changes on both sides of the supply chain, with the consumer playing a key role. Therefore, understanding the factors that positively correlate with increased organic food sales over time for an entire population can help guide policymakers, industry, and research to increase this transition further. Using a statistical approach, we developed a spatial pooled cross-sectional model to analyze factors that positively correlate with an increased demand for organic food sales over 20 years (1999–2019) for an entire region (the city-state of Hamburg, Germany), accounting for spatial effects through the spatial error model, spatially lagged X model, and spatial Durbin error model. The results indicated that voting behavior strongly correlated with increased organic food sales over time. Specifically, areas with a higher number of residents that voted for a political party with a core focus on environmental issues, the Greens and the Left Party in Germany. However, there is a stronger connection with the more “radical” Left Party than with the “mainstream” Green Party, which may provide evidence for the attitude-behavior gap, as Left Party supporters are very convinced of their attitudes (pro-environment) and behavior thus follows. By including time and space, this analysis is the first to summarize developments over time for a metropolitan population while accounting for spatial effects and identifying areas for targeted marketing that need further motivation to increase organic food sales.
The logistician at a major humanitarian food aid organization (HFAO) is facing the decision whether to source globally or locally. The logistician is overseeing the distribution of a common fortified food product, a maize-soy blend (MSB), to a refugee camp in Africa. The main task of this case study is to evaluate the two potential sourcing options (globally versus locally), potentially by conducting a life cycle assessment of the two potential food supply chains. One possibility is to get the product locally, from the same country or region in Africa. The alternative would be to go global and receive the product from a supplier in Europe. The HFAO is concerned about their environmental impact. Advantages and disadvantages of local vs global procurement must be considered and carefully weighted, to identify which one is more sustainable. After all, the HFAO wants to champion sustainability, and add socioeconomic and environmental value to its aid operations.
In 2020, the world started a fight against a pandemic that has severely disrupted commercial and humanitarian supply chains. Humanitarian organizations (HOs), like the World Food Programme (WFP), adjusted their programs in order to manage this pandemic. One such program is cash and voucher assistance (CVA), which is used to bolster beneficiaries' freedom of choice regarding their consumption. In this vein, WFP supports local retailers to provide CVA to beneficiaries who do not have access to a functioning market. However, the operations of these stores can suffer from a very high transmission risk of COVID-19 unless preventive measures are put in place to reduce it. This paper discusses strategies that retailers and HOs can enact to maximize their service and dignity levels while minimizing transmission risk under a CVA program during a pandemic. We argue that HOs providing CVA programs can improve their assistance during a pandemic by implementing strategies that impact the retailing operations of their retailers.
