School on Humanitarian Supply Chain Management and Logistics 2018 / Yogyakarta

NOHA academics and renowned speakers from Indonesia and other Asian countries will address the trials of humanitarian supply chain management and logistics, including decision making, chain components, performance management, networking design, procurement and warehousing, communi­cation and security, relations with the military, table top exercise emergency management, as well as the social dimensions of delivery systems. Elucidation through various case studies occurs throughout the week. Also, regional Asian perspectives and experiences will receive special attention.

Humanitarian supply chain management (SCM) is defined by the IFRC as ‘acquiring and delivering requested supplies and services at the places and times they are needed, whilst ensuring best value for money; in the immediate aftermath of any [type of] disaster or reconstruction situation, including items that are vital for survival, such as food, water, temporary shelter and medicine’. Humanitarian Logistics is part and parcel of the wider humanitarian SCM.

Recent research has shown a need for multi-dimensional understanding of humanitarian SCM. Both from a technical perspective (logistics, information gathering, warehousing, pre-positioning, transportation, distribution) as well as from a strategic perspective (decision making, co-ordination, inter-organisational co-operation, public-private partnerships, contribution to long-term recovery through knowledge transfer) conceptualisation and field-sustained research has been conducted for the benefit of producing deeper knowledge of global humanitarian SCM.

With an estimated 19 billion USD spent in 2016 on humanitarian aid (GHA report 2017; calculations based on both public as well as private spending) in response to natural disasters and complex emergencies one can easily see the need for professional and efficient humanitarian SCM, which is involved in 80% of all relief activities.

Asia and South-East Asia over the past decade have become increasingly prone to especially natural disasters. Be it because of climate change, man-made interference with nature or ‘simple’ geological circumstances, more frequently hazards have materialized into disasters, affecting the lives of millions and demanding increasing national and international humanitarian response. Indonesia is certainly an example in kind. From Tsunami’s to earthquakes, landslides, volcano eruptions and flooding, the vulnerability of the Indonesian population is quite high.

Already for a period of nine years NOHA AISBL has worked ever more closely together with Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Republic of Indonesia. Thanks to the Directorate General Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection and the Directorate General Education and Culture (Erasmus Mundus), both European Commission, as well as the European NOHA Universities this cooperation blossoms. The deepening relationship has resulted in dozens of staff and student exchanges, in thesis research being accompanied by UGM professors in situ and in collaboration towards joint doctorate research. By co-jointly organizing a high profile summer school NOHA and UGM set the next step to an activities-based relationship - as dictated by NOHA’s global strategy - aimed for increased academic humanitarian research and aimed at contemporary relevance for humanitarian practice.

More information and registration.

Learning objectives and expected outcomes

NOHA-UGM expects participants to acquire:

  • Highly specialised knowledge and a critical understanding of concepts and theories concerning humanitarian supply chain management and logistics
  • Innovative expertise on supply chain management and logistics in humanitarian action with an interdisciplinary understanding in terms of its political, legal, anthropological, public health and management aspects.
  • Specialised skills to conceptualise, interpret and critically analyse complex humanitarian supply chain management an logistics
  • An open attitude towards acquiring new knowledge

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