Received: 1 August 2021 Accepted: 1 May 2022

DOI: 10.1111/poms.13848

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Sustainable humanitarian operations: An integrated perspective

Charles J. Corbett1 Alfonso J. Pedraza-Martinez2 Luk N. Van Wassenhove3

1
UCLA Anderson School of Management, Abstract
University of California, Los Angeles, California,
The immediate response to disasters, while well intended, sometimes causes avoidable
USA
2
humanitarian challenges later on. Drinking water may be essential, but it is not neces-
Kelley School of Business, Indiana University,
Bloomington, Indiana, USA
sary to provide it in small plastic bottles. Injections may save lives, but inappropriately
3
discarded syringes are hazardous. Can humanitarian relief be made more sustainable?
INSEAD, Fontainebleau, Cedex, France
This paper summarizes a 1-day workshop on this topic, held at INSEAD in 2019 in con-
Correspondence
nection with Luk Van Wassenhove’s transition to emeritus professor. This workshop
Charles J. Corbett, UCLA Anderson School of involved over 100 academics and practitioners. Five areas were discussed in detail:
Management, University of California, Los material convergence, coordination between humanitarian organizations (HOs), logis-
Angeles, 110 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA
90095-1481, USA.
tics, partnerships with industry, and health. The discussions demonstrate the possibility
Email: [email protected] of better integrating sustainability with humanitarian operations despite the inherent
tension between the immediate need to save lives and the longer term perspective
Handling Editor: Kalyan Singhal associated with sustainability. This requires that various stakeholders, including HOs,
donors, and watchdog organizations, think differently about the balance between short-
term and long-term interventions, the metrics and incentives they apply, and the role of
local versus global organizations. Leading practitioners and scholars in humanitarian
operations are well aware of these challenges and opportunities in each domain sepa-
rately; this paper aims to introduce these issues to a broader audience in a single more
integrated overview, based on the themes that were discussed at the workshop.

KEYWORDS
coordination, disaster management, health, humanitarian operations, logistics, material convergence,
partnerships, sustainable operations, workshop

1 INTRODUCTION donations to the disaster area to avoid airport congestion.

Every year, patients receive over 16 billion injections world-
A devastating earthquake struck Haiti in 2010. After the wide, but many syringes are not safely disposed; 15% of
immediate disaster response, mountains of plastic water bot- the waste generated by healthcare activities is considered
tles were left in the stricken country.1 In the short run, hazardous.2 This issue is even more complicated during
this humanitarian action provided relief from the drinking humanitarian responses to disasters when waste collection
water shortage, but it also exacerbated the inadequacy of systems fail.
the country’s deficient waste disposal infrastructure. Water No one disputes the need to respond to crises, but
was a necessity, but not in the form of half-liter bottles. In these examples demonstrate that the responses can lead to
2011, Japan suffered an earthquake and tsunami. The pub- further humanitarian challenges down the road. How can
lic donated millions of unsolicited blankets that ended up humanitarian relief be provided in a way that reduces such
undistributed and thus occupied scarce warehousing space in unintended consequences? In other words, how can human-
the field. Something similar happened to the tons of clothing itarian relief be made more sustainable, or at least less
donated in New York City after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. unsustainable?
After Mozambique was struck by Typhoon Idai in 2019, This question is becoming increasingly acute. Currently,
the United Nations stopped the flow of unsolicited bilateral humanitarian crises last more than 9 years on average.3 They
result from natural disasters (e.g., Hurricane Dorian in the
Accepted by Kalyan Singhal, after one revision. Bahamas) and from complex emergencies (e.g., the Syrian

Prod Oper Manag. 2022;31:4393–4406. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/poms © 2022 Production and Operations Management Society. 4393
4394 CORBETT ET AL.
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refugee crisis). In response to crises, multiple stakeholders— practice for more sustainable rehabilitation operations, the-
ranging from international donors to local communities— ory on sustainable humanitarian supply chain management is
make decisions quickly, and often with poor information and still scarce, though we point to some exceptions throughout
constrained budgets. At the same time, they must also plan this paper.
for the next phases, such as rehabilitation, mitigation, and The fields of humanitarian operations and sustainable oper-
preparedness for future disasters. Humanitarian operations ations have formed the cornerstone of Luk Van Wassenhove’s
take place in challenging contexts, and addressing short-term research agenda since the mid-1990s. To mark his transition
needs to relieve acute suffering must be balanced against the to emeritus professor in late 2019, we organized a work-
long-term need to sustainably recover and strengthen local shop around the theme: How can we make humanitarian
communities.4 operations more sustainable? This paper summarizes the
The disaster management cycle (DMC) framework insights from that workshop. Leading practitioners and schol-
(Alexander, 2002) identifies four disaster management ars in the field of humanitarian operations are already well
phases: preparedness, response, rehabilitation, and mitiga- aware of these challenges and opportunities in their respective
tion. Preparedness begins after a disaster warning or the domains, as was clear from their contributions to the work-
identification of a disaster risk. Response takes place in the shop. This paper aims to introduce these issues in a more
aftermath of a disaster. Rehabilitation follows the response integrated fashion to a broader audience that may be inter-
and aims to rebuild to restore the quality of life in the affected ested in exploring how the fields of humanitarian operations
community. Mitigation is about long-term improvements and sustainable operations interact.
aimed at reducing the impact of future disasters. The workshop focused on five main areas: material con-
We use the term “sustainability” in a broad sense, includ- vergence, coordination between HOs, logistics, partnerships
ing a range of economic, social, and environmental factors, with industry, and health. The workshop had over 100 partici-
as in the United Nations sustainable development goals pants: humanitarian practitioners, sustainability practitioners,
(SDGs). Blind (2019) establishes links between the SDGs and scholars conducting research on humanitarian opera-
and the “Agenda for Humanity,” which came out of the World tions or sustainable operations. This is not in any way a
Humanitarian Summit in 2016. Besiou et al. (2021) offer a representative sample, but the diversity of perspectives was
framework showing how the SDGs are interlinked and how valuable. We also conducted a preworkshop survey follow-
humanitarian operations can support the SDGs. ing the same five themes. This paper reflects the opinions
There is an inherent tension between the notion of sus- expressed during the workshop, using the tone and examples
tainability and the urgency involved in disaster response, but provided by the participants; we have not independently veri-
humanitarian operations span the entire DMC, as Besiou et al. fied all statements made. Throughout the paper, we provide
(2021) point out. The way humanitarian organizations (HOs) some references to related literature; however, the work-
operate within each phase of the DMC can be more or less shop was not based on presentations of research and this
sustainable. For example, refugee camps (such as those oper- paper is therefore not intended as a complete review of
ated by Oxfam in Greece) are considered temporary because, the literature on this topic. The special issue of Production
ideally, refugees are expected to find a permanent home and Operations Management on “Humanitarian Operations
elsewhere. In practice, refugee camps often last a decade and the Sustainable Development Goals,” and the introduc-
or longer (Jahre et al., 2018), and often involve wasteful tion to that issue by Besiou et al. (2021), provide a much
practices related to transportation, sanitation, waste disposal, more complete overview of ongoing research in this field.
or energy provision. These practices might be considered This paper, however, demonstrates the possibility of bet-
acceptable for a few months, but they could be avoided by ter integrating sustainability with humanitarian operations
implementing a better initial design. Even if the humani- despite the inherent tension between the immediate need to
tarian response itself is temporary, it can have long-lasting save lives and the longer term perspective associated with
unintended after-effects. The “humanitarian – development sustainability.
gap” has been recognized for decades and has long been We examine the five main topics in Section 2, while Sec-
contentious in academia and government (Blind, 2019); it tion 3 summarizes several other themes that emerged during
is fundamentally impossible to meet the SDGs if displaced the workshop. Section 4 offers conclusions.
people are left behind. Spiegel (2017, p. 6) observes that pro-
tracted situations are becoming the norm, so it is essential
to make humanitarian interventions “efficient, effective and 2 FIVE AREAS WHERE
sustainable.” Despite that, Besiou et al. (2021) suggest that HUMANITARIAN RESPONSES
many stakeholders in the humanitarian sector still treat devel- CAN BE MORE SUSTAINABLE
opment and relief in separate silos, and argue that research
in humanitarian operations should not follow this historical This section summarizes insights from the workshop on the
divide. Kunz and Gold (2017) also argue that more sustain- five areas we selected. For many people, the first issue that
able performance in the rehabilitation phase requires a more comes to mind when hearing “humanitarian operations” is
long-term perspective on humanitarian supply chain manage- emergency shipments of supplies being sent to a disaster
ment. They point out that despite calls from research and area. The challenge of managing these emergency shipments,
SUSTAINABLE HUMANITARIAN OPERATIONS: AN INTEGRATED PERSPECTIVE 4395
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known as material convergence, is the first area we discuss. interviewed over 2000 disaster response participants ranging
Integrating these flows requires coordination between HOs, from volunteers to government ministers, in the aftermath
the second area. Managing flows of supplies, in the immedi- of multiple disasters over the last 20 years—reported that
ate aftermath but also in the longer term, inevitably requires a plurality of these individuals consider unsolicited in-kind
attention to logistics, the third area. Particularly in logistics, donations the main challenge during response to large dis-
partnerships with industry are essential and have advanced asters. These floods of unsolicited in-kind donations have
substantially, our fourth area. Finally, one objective of HOs is been labelled as a “2nd disaster” or “a disaster within the
restoring and maintaining a population’s health, in the short disaster.”
and long term; this is our fifth area. For many disasters, water is critical only during the first
We organize our discussion of these areas around several 2 or 3 days. After this, it quickly becomes a low-priority
themes that emerged repeatedly: item, and later is categorized as “junk” (i.e., no priority).
After the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, 750 tons of
∙ practical examples of the need and potential for sustain- water was left unused. In Puerto Rico, unused water in plas-
ability improvement, tic bottles quickly became undrinkable after being exposed
∙ local versus global perspectives, to the sun. Relief workers had to dispose of these bottles on
∙ metrics and incentives, the island. Plastic bottles in Haiti cluttered drains and caused
∙ some necessary conditions to improve the sustainability of flooding after the heavy rains that followed the 2010 earth-
responses in each area. quake. Other nonpriority items researchers have observed
include wedding gowns, tiger costumes, tuxedos, and a truck-
These areas and themes overlap to some extent with load of left-foot shoes; Holguín-Veras et al. (2014) document
the topics that Besiou et al. (2021) identify as needing many examples. Holguín-Veras et al. (2016) refer to Fritz and
further research: localization (the need to reconcile local Mathewson’s (1957) report on material convergence, illus-
and global perspectives), environmental sustainability, and trating how persistent this challenge is, and Besiou et al.
interconnected supply networks, which refers both to coordi- (2021) note that the volume of “trash” donations has
nation between HOs and partnerships with the private sector. increased further during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even
Clearly, the five areas overlap substantially; for instance, items that are appropriate, such as solar-powered lights, pose
some challenges related to metrics that we discuss under challenges as often no mechanism exists to systematically
“health” apply equally to “logistics.” Below, in deciding pick up used batteries, which end up discarded locally caus-
which theme to include in which section, and in how much ing future health problems for children trying to extract
detail, we largely followed the way the discussions unfolded potentially valuable materials.
at the workshop; the result is inevitably less equally balanced Lack of visibility complicates matters. Recipients at the
than would be the case for a more traditional literature review. destination have to deal with material convergence, as
opposed to donors at the origin. There is often little con-
trol at the source over the items that donors send. Once those
2.1 Material convergence donations arrive at the disaster areas—after using scarce and
expensive transportation—humanitarian workers have to deal
2.1.1 Practical examples of the potential for with random surprises such as the infamous tiger costumes. It
sustainability improvement in material would be better if materials could be sorted at the origin or if
convergence donors could be persuaded to give cash or at least limit them-
selves to the items actually being solicited. Ideally, a donor
Material convergence refers to the tangible (in-kind) items would be required to specify what is being donated in a bill
that arrive on site in the aftermath of a disaster. Some of lading, and would not receive permission to send the goods
items may be needed and are formally requested by HOs until a party is ready to accept them. In practice, donors may
(solicited donations), while other items are neither needed not have that information or may have no incentive to give
nor requested (unsolicited donations). The Pan-American what is actually needed.
Health Organization classifies donations as either urgent,
high priority, low priority, or nonpriority. Only 5% to 10%
of all the material that arrives in a disaster area is considered 2.1.2 Local versus global
high priority. Between 50% and 60% is not a priority at all.
Holguín-Veras et al. (2016) characterize 60% as “completely The trade-off between a push and a pull approach in material
useless.” Some low-priority items may become useful at convergence is related to the division between local ver-
a later stage, but sorting and storing them diverts scarce sus global control. A push approach begins at the global
human resources from more urgent tasks. This tremendous level and allows for a shorter lead time, but can result in
inflow of nonpriority items creates bottlenecks and prevents more bottlenecks and a mismatch between needs and ship-
high-priority items from reaching the beneficiaries in time. ments. A pull approach, where shipments are based on urgent
José Holguín-Veras (a professor at the Rensselaer Poly- needs, is driven at the local level; it reduces bottlenecks
technic Institute) and colleagues—who estimate they have and waste but results in longer lead times because local
4396 CORBETT ET AL.
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demand assessments often take time. Moreover, the feasi- warm blankets that may not arrive until the onset of a heat
bility of a particular push–pull strategy also depends on the wave, as occurred after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan
available data: A pull strategy only works if local demand (Holguín-Veras et al., 2012). Donors may seek the visibil-
is mapped and reliably transmitted in real time to suppli- ity associated with sending a planeload of water bottles to
ers. Some redundancy or waste may actually be desirable a disaster zone even if water is already abundant. HOs are
in emergency situations. If one does not know exactly how reluctant to refuse these gifts out of concern of upsetting
many people need basic relief items immediately after a dis- donors.
aster, it may be better to push enough priority items into the
area to be on the safe side, and adjust after more reliable
information becomes available. It is critical to understand the 2.1.4 What would it take for material
operational implications of the push–pull boundary in this convergence to be more sustainable?
context. Őzpolat et al. (2015) compare the recipient-country
approach favored by the United Nations and European Union Improving material convergence entails reducing waste. If
with the donor-country approach prevailing in the United donors give cash, HOs can convert that into the most-needed
States, and suggest that a contingency approach is prefer- relief items. The next best option is to prevent nonpriority
able; Eftekhar et al. (2022) analyze the trade-offs involved items from entering the disaster area, for example, by sorting
in prepositioning centrally sourced materials versus locally and staging further upstream. Appropriate packaging pro-
sourcing after a disaster strikes and offer insights on what vides another opportunity (USAID, 2020); for example, small
such a contingency approach might involve. bottles are often provided, but 10 L ones are more useful.
Research on material convergence requires new modeling
paradigms for complex problems (de Vries & Van Wassen-
2.1.3 Metrics and incentives hove, 2020). One workshop participant commented, “We
need to broaden the focus of humanitarian logistics. About
The key metrics in managing material convergence depend on 80% of the papers are about inventory prepositioning.” More-
the deprivation level involved. This can vary heavily among over, assuming that “one size fits all” is too simplistic. One
disasters and determines the deprivation cost, that is, the survey respondent asked why we mobilize insurance pay-
degree of suffering of the population (Shao et al., 2020). outs after disasters in the developed world, but automatically
Material convergence is a complex community problem that switch to material hand-outs in less-developed countries;
involves donors, governments, humanitarians, logisticians, instead, one should ask how markets would respond to a
beneficiaries, and other stakeholders, including very impor- disaster of a certain scale and complexity in the developed
tant persons (VIPs) and the media (especially social media). world, and then transpose the answers to reimagine how the
Governments and HOs launch appeals for in-kind items response could play out in the developing world. The ongoing
without specifying lead times. For example, they may ask push among some HOs and donors to move toward cash and
for water, but shipping times lead to a mismatch between voucher programs rather than in-kind aid can help to rebuild
supply and demand, even for high-priority goods: What a stronger local economy as well as reduce the economic
is urgent now is not necessarily urgent in a few days or and environmental costs associated with in-kind supplies.
weeks. By the time the water arrives, it may not be needed Holguín-Veras et al. (2022) highlight the collective action
anymore. nature of the material convergence problem, which helps to
Emotional responses often drive private donations. Donors elucidate how the incentives faced by the various stakehold-
make in-kind contributions altruistically but with no con- ers conspire to thwart obvious and simple solutions from
sideration of the needs or supply chain issues involved. being implemented in practice. They propose that trusted
Donors may think tiger costumes will make some children change agents such as local churches, fire departments, and
in the disaster zone happy, but in reality, such items do not international organizations may be able to persuade individ-
help. Logistics companies serve as a channel but do not sort uals to switch from donating physical supplies to giving cash
in-kind donations before shipment. Local relief organizations instead.
often accept any donations out of desperation. They quickly
realize that many unsolicited in-kind donations are useless,
but by then they are left with the burden of disposal. Other 2.2 Coordination between HOs
stakeholders such as VIPs try to share information about
needs, but may not have timely and accurate data. 2.2.1 Practical examples of the potential for
During normal times, donations such as clothing may be sustainability improvement in coordination
welcome and easily processed, and in short supply, while between HOs
the opposite can hold during a disaster. Media attention
contributes to peak donations of clothes during a disaster One example of the need for coordination comes from a sur-
response, but time delays are insufficiently understood. For vey respondent’s comment that the World Food Programme
example, a disaster could happen during a period of cold (WFP) in Kenya depends on local transportation service
weather, prompting the media to encourage people to send providers for last-mile distribution to populations in need, but
SUSTAINABLE HUMANITARIAN OPERATIONS: AN INTEGRATED PERSPECTIVE 4397
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that many other HOs rely on those same providers. The clus- standards developed by the IFRC did not always work
ter system for international humanitarian responses aimed to well in the varying local contexts. The case studies by
improve accountability, predictability, and partnerships, and Comes et al. (2020) describe the fragmented nature of coor-
began in 2005–2006 after the Humanitarian Reform Agenda.5 dination in practice, documenting how informal parallel
Notable members included the UN and the Red Cross Move- coordination systems emerged to support local operations,
ment. It was first deployed after the 2005 Pakistan earthquake next to the formal coordination through the cluster system.
and has been operational ever since, with clusters such as Salem et al. (2019) highlight the importance of interper-
logistics, nutrition, and health. However, workshop partic- sonal leadership for successful collaboration between locals
ipants commented that this system was designed with no and expatriates, in particular when those subgroups are
input from some stakeholders, such as local NGOs. This more internally cohesive. Shaheen and Azadegan (2020)
issue remains despite a later redesign to be more inclusive. examine the collaborative relationships between local and
Some participants claim that there is still no coordinating national governmental and nongovernmental agencies; they
voice for the humanitarian sector. These concerns echo those find expectations vary substantially between agencies, some
raised by Comes et al. (2020), Jahre and Jensen (2010), and seeing the relationships as more communal while others
others. seeing them as exchange based, and these perceptions also
There are two distinct approaches to humanitarian change during the DMC. Such different and changing per-
response, each adopted by various global HOs. The first ceptions clearly pose additional challenges for successful
focuses only on the initial response to a humanitarian crisis. coordination.
The second considers all the phases of the DMC: prepared-
ness, response, rehabilitation, and mitigation. A workshop
participant from an HO described how one organization 2.2.3 Metrics and incentives
“parachutes in, saves lives, then gets out,” while another takes
a longer term perspective, aimed at preventing disasters and Despite the potential benefits, few explicit incentives exist
educating people. The second approach lends itself more nat- for coordination. The funding system supporting HOs does
urally to a sustainability perspective because of its longer not help. Metrics are often used more for reporting back to
term mindset. However, even HOs that are closer to the first donors or to respond to audits, rather than to support man-
view can coordinate with HOs that stay in the field longer, agerial decision making. Even then, money usually comes
for instance, to ensure appropriate disposal of medical waste late in the game because donors rarely give money for
used during the initial response. preparedness or rehabilitation or the mitigation of future
disasters. Donors do not always allow funds that are ear-
marked for emergency response to be used for long-term
2.2.2 Local versus global investments. Overcoming these barriers requires discussion
with the communities, the HOs, the local governments, inter-
Local knowledge is key to ensuring sustainability. When a national donors, and other stakeholders. Investing in better
disaster strikes, HOs sometimes do not adequately include coordination between HOs, locally and globally, takes time
local communities, even when these communities have and effort, and therefore money, but such investments in
invested in disaster preparedness. Instead, HOs bring in the coordination are typically categorized as overhead and hence
“big guns,” the “experts” from abroad, who may interfere frowned upon by potential donors (Parsa et al., 2022). Fur-
with the established relationships between that HO’s in- thermore, coordination with other HOs risks diluting the
country office and the local organizations. Local NGOs are media attention and hence future donations that an indi-
often numerically underrepresented in coordination efforts, vidual HO might receive, providing a further disincentive
and they are often included only as observers, not as partic- (Eftekhar et al., 2017).
ipants in the decision-making process. Other organizations,
such as local religious groups, may be deeply anchored
in the local society, but they are seldom connected to 2.2.4 What would it take for coordination
global NGOs or the UN. A great deal of work remains between HOs to be more sustainable?
to be done to improve coordination between global HOs
and local NGOs. The study by Frennesson et al. (2020) For global HOs to work more effectively with local HOs, they
indicates that global HOs agree that more localization is must accept that they do not know as much about local con-
needed but that they struggle with operationalizing these ditions as the people who live in a disaster area. For example,
intentions. dark bread was shipped internationally to Albania, but the
The three detailed case studies provided by Jahre et al. local population would not eat it. For months, international
(2015) on the International Federation of Red Cross and humanitarian workers were eating dark bread at every single
Red Crescent Societies’ (IFRC) Global Logistics Services meeting to avoid having to throw it away. Better coordination
illustrate many of the challenges associated with making between local and global organizations could have prevented
coordination work in practice, often related to the local this. The review by Grange et al. (2020) shows that research
versus global distinction. Among others, they find that on coordination in the humanitarian sector has expanded
4398 CORBETT ET AL.
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but still lags that on the commercial sector; Jahre and 2.3.2 Local versus global
Jensen (2021) find that research lags practice by still focus-
ing mostly on coordination in response rather than during Although local procurement might often be more sustain-
preparation. able, the effectiveness of the global machinery is a major
cause of inertia. Using local procurement would require better
interfaces between local and global organizations that oper-
2.3 Logistics ate using different technologies. More standardized responses
would help coordinate global and local operations and would
2.3.1 Practical examples of the potential for reduce the need for detailed information. It would also curb
sustainability improvement in logistics the power of manufacturers by limiting last-minute decision
making under severe time pressure. Conversely, if disaster
During the Ebola virus outbreaks, the World Health Organi- response is too standardized, it may not match local demands,
zation (WHO) logistics arm had a very clear mission: Stop which would lead to more waste. For instance, when drinking
Ebola. If there was a suspected case, the WHO had to bring water is supplied in large packs with many bottles, refugees
a team, inspect the case, isolate it, take the sample, bring it cannot carry that when walking, leading to many bottles
back to the lab, then diagnose, treat, surround, vaccinate, and and other items being left at the curbside. Greater adap-
move the patient. The WHO’s operating model was designed tation to local needs means that items are earmarked for
to stop the outbreak within 3 months. It worked to stop out- specific populations, which reduces the flexibility achievable
breaks, but Ebola virus programs are becoming longer, and by prepositioning supplies. This trade-off between the bene-
the operating model must change. fits and disadvantages of standardization is a promising area
Initially, the WHO rented 600 vehicles. It did not buy them for operations management research (see, for instance, Jahre
because its planning horizon was 3 months, although it could & Fabbe-Costes, 2015).
have moved them to other operations afterwards. If the WHO Humanitarian response should be beneficiary centric, con-
had said “We need to buy 250 cars for a three-month opera- sidering the needs of the people being rescued. The WFP
tion,” its donors would have laughed. By now, the operation found that people in some refugee camps were buying pow-
has been going for years. The WHO has gained some efficien- dered milk in large quantities, not because they had small
cies in the fleet, and it has reduced the number of rented cars, children but because it is easy to trade: They were using it
the cost per kilometer driven, fuel consumption, and other as a currency. Researchers using consumption data without
metrics, but with the benefit of hindsight, their logistics could understanding the local context could easily develop erro-
have been more sustainable. neous models and produce dubious results. Holguín-Veras
Motorcycles used by health workers in Africa break down et al. (2016) propose that integrating civic society in the
frequently with long repair times, meaning they could not response effort is crucial for creating logistics structures with
reliably cover long distances. Recognizing that a large pro- the full range of capabilities required.
portion of the population in sub-Saharan Africa lives in rural
areas with no paved roads, motorcycles are an essential part
of efforts to improve health. Initiatives emerged to train 2.3.3 Metrics and incentives
healthcare workers to perform preventive maintenance and
to improve the effectiveness of repair centers and availabil- Tough trade-offs are sometimes required to include sustain-
ity of spare parts, partly through greater standardization of ability in humanitarian response. How should short-term and
motorcycles. Another approach to reach remote areas with- long-term damage and costs be measured and compared? The
out having to rely on air drops is the use of amphibious all carbon footprint is one metric for sustainability in supply
terrain vehicles, such as the WFP’s Sherp.6 chains, but other environmental aspects may be more relevant
Holguín-Veras et al. (2012) identify seven areas of in the humanitarian setting. There are no clear standards for
difference between commercial logistics and regular and measuring societal impact, even if intergenerational justice is
postdisaster humanitarian logistics; postdisaster logistics is often mentioned. There is a need for more benchmarking in
very different from that associated with long-term develop- the humanitarian sector, and those benchmarks can be more
ment, which is more similar to commercial logistics. Jahre integrated in decision making.
et al. (2016) show how merging the supply chains for A key deterrent of sustainability in humanitarian logis-
emergency response and for longer term operations at the tics is cost. The individuals who implement a response will
UNHCR, while taking a variety of contextual factors into usually opt for the solution that is the cheapest in the short
account, enabled an expansion of the global warehouse net- term, even though the sustainable solution is sometimes the
work while reducing cost and lead time. Stocks that are most efficient in the long term. Given a trade-off between
maintained to support long-term operations can serve a dual spending money to save lives now versus spending money
purpose as preparedness stock for emergencies, and left- to improve sustainability in the long term, it is obvious which
over stock from emergencies can be used in longer term option HOs will choose. Donors must understand the impor-
operations, reducing both waste and lead time. tance of funding disaster mitigation and preparedness to build
SUSTAINABLE HUMANITARIAN OPERATIONS: AN INTEGRATED PERSPECTIVE 4399
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sustainability into humanitarian responses. Consider the case phase. However, donations specifically meant for prepared-
of earmarked funding. Organizations responding to Ebola ness and capacity building are scarce and investments in those
virus outbreaks are not allowed to use funds earmarked for areas are an overhead cost; donors sometimes rely too nar-
emergencies to strengthen local health systems overall, even rowly on metrics published by watchdog organizations like
though these local systems are crucial in the early detection Charity Navigator such as the ratio of spending that goes
of potentially dangerous outbreaks. directly to relief. Parsa et al. (2022) suggest that improved
The humanitarian sector is fragmented, with many stake- governance can mitigate that counterproductive aversion to
holders, hampering coordination efforts. Supply chain–wide investments in infrastructure and systems.
transparency and better information flows can help, as they In the 2010s, UNICEF introduced a procurement policy
have in closed-loop supply chains (Ferguson, 2009). More incorporating social, economic, and environmental sustain-
standards and audits would enhance transparency and coor- ability. UNICEF was already quite advanced in economic
dination in the humanitarian sector. On the other hand, sustainability after 15 years of efforts to reduce the price of
standards do not always help (Jahre et al., 2015), and this sec- key vaccines. In the case of ready-to-use therapeutic food7
tor already suffers from an abundance of rules, procedures, (RUTF) in sub-Saharan Africa in 2010–2011, they were able
and audits. Practitioners say they have to bend rules to get to implement a triple bottom line approach (see Figure 1). In
things done. response to a large famine in the Horn of Africa, UNICEF had
Information flows shape incentives, and vice versa. Often, airlifted 10–15 charters of RUTF, but a few years later, a simi-
HOs post information on social media (e.g., Facebook, Twit- lar operation required zero airlifts without affecting response
ter) directed toward disaster victims, but when potential times: UNICEF had developed local production capacity in
donors and volunteers ask how they can help, they may Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, and South Africa, which substan-
not receive timely and actionable answers from HOs. This tially reduced logistics costs and pollution while creating
prompts some volunteers to engage in uncoordinated action jobs for local farmers and communities. A survey respondent
(see also Yan & Pedraza-Martinez, 2019). mentioned similar efforts by WFP to enhance local milk pro-
More automated decision making and data management duction capacity in Africa, providing local employment and
could increase effectiveness, but introduce their own chal- reducing the need to import milk from elsewhere. Another
lenges, given the critical importance of neutrality for HOs. obvious example that occurred since the workshop is the
Aggregating and sharing information across nongovernmen- desirability of localizing production of COVID-19 vaccines
tal organizations (NGOs), who might be competing with in smaller facilities in Africa. Despite such successes, chang-
each other, may not yield immediate benefits and may entail ing long-established processes to make humanitarian logistics
serious risks in conflict areas. more sustainable remains challenging. One workshop par-
ticipant from an HO said, “We are creatures of habit …
[c]ertainty is safety.”
2.3.4 What would it take for humanitarian
logistics to be more sustainable?
2.4 Partnerships with industry
It is difficult to add sustainability to the requirements of an
operation during (short-term) disaster response. When people 2.4.1 Practical examples of the potential for
learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), they are taught sustainability improvement in partnerships with
that it is acceptable to break ribs to keep the person alive. industry
This illustrates why it is difficult to consider sustainability
while lives are at stake. At the same time, the decision to Cross-sector partnerships are explicitly included as UN
accept breaking ribs was made beforehand, so this is not an SDG17: “Partnerships for the goals.” The UN Office for the
improvised response. As disasters increase in urgency and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs remarks that partner-
complexity, the quality of the response is reduced, and sus- ships with the private sector increase the effectiveness of
tainability is less salient in the immediate decision-making humanitarian action.8 An example is the Airbus Foundation,
context. Thus, there is a conflict between the short-term through which airlines can donate the delivery flight of their
and long-term visions of a humanitarian response, but pre- latest Airbus aircraft to HOs, who can use the otherwise
paredness can help reconcile these perspectives. During the empty flight to transport personnel and goods such as sani-
workshop, participants commented that humanitarian inter- tation equipment or emergency aid kits. Between 2008 and
vention has an immediate effect on local markets, sometimes 2020, 900 tons of aid materials were delivered to six regions
disrupting them, and on future local development, which in on 71 humanitarian flights.9
turn may influence the likelihood and severity of future dis- There are numerous examples of successful partnerships;
asters. They pointed to a range of interconnected factors at the workshop the discussion centered around fleet manage-
that jointly influence the short-term and long-term sustain- ment, which is no surprise given the participants’ familiarity
ability of an intervention, often in subtle ways or opposite with that case. In November 2001, Peter Bakker, then CEO of
directions. Making humanitarian operations more sustainable TNT (a major Dutch logistics company at the time), decided
takes careful planning to deal with this complexity, and plan- to extend their social corporate initiatives globally. They
ning typically takes place during the disaster preparedness searched for the right humanitarian partner, an organization
4400 CORBETT ET AL.
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FIGURE 1 UNICEF’s triple bottom line approach to distribution of RUTF

that would fit TNT’s global logistics mission and share TNT’s accidents such as landslides, and can lead to unused housing.
concern for problems related to extreme poverty. After a sys- Partnering with local construction companies would reduce
tematic search, TNT invited WFP to form the “Moving the the likelihood of inappropriate solutions being imposed from
World” alliance (Samii et al., 2004). TNT’s goal was to abroad.
improve the logistics capabilities of the humanitarian sector.
WFP relied heavily on global logistics to distribute food to the
poor around the world. The Fleet Forum was born out of the 2.4.3 Metrics and incentives
TNT–WFP partnership. Besides TNT and WFP, other found-
ing partners of the Fleet Forum are World Vision International For a partnership to be successful, the objectives and cor-
and the IFRC. The Fleet Forum aims at “… developing prac- responding metrics need to be defined. In the context of
tical solutions to address complex aid and development logistics, such metrics will typically involve a combination
[humanitarian] sector challenges,”10 and its continued exis- of cost and lead time. Although some work in humanitarian
tence suggests that it offers valuable lessons on coordination. operations does explicitly address metrics (such as Acimovic
Moving the world also created the North Star Alliance, which & Goentzel, 2016), the systematic review by Abidi et al.
set up a series of wellness centers to provide health services to (2014) suggests that metrics for the humanitarian sector often
truck drivers who were spreading HIV along cargo routes in need to be distinct from those in the commercial sector, and
Africa.11 are still much less developed.
For a partnership to be successful in the long term, it must The Fleet Forum targeted a number of challenges in
benefit all partners. In the case of the TNT–WFP alliance, humanitarian logistics, such as old fleets, low service levels,
the benefits to the HOs were quite tangible, but those to TNT lack of vehicle standardization, lack of preventive mainte-
were not evident at first glance, such as the staff satisfaction nance, high accident rates, and high fleet costs (Pedraza-
pointed out by TNT’s CEO. TNT staff donated significant Martinez et al., 2011, 2020). Some fleet issues were so
time to the partnership; some traveled to remote areas to critical that they compromised the ability of the organiza-
support WFP field programs. As a result, TNT rose to the tion to deliver their services to beneficiaries. The Fleet Forum
top of the “best places to work” in Europe at the time. This brought together a number of important HOs to discuss their
partnership also helped TNT build CEO-level relationships fleet problems and identify best practices for the sector. Some
with other companies (e.g., Unilever) and improved their TNT staff members were assigned to work full time with the
sustainability rankings. Fleet Forum during its first few years. HOs within the Fleet
Forum defined key performance indicators that they monitor
regularly. These HOs began to find solutions to their more
2.4.2 Local versus global pressing problems (see Figure 2).

It is natural for international HOs to first turn to large multi-

national companies when exploring partnerships, and the 2.4.4 What would it take for partnerships with
TNT–WFP alliance is an example where that worked well. industry to be more sustainable?
In other cases, partnering with local industry might be prefer-
able. For example, a survey respondent recalls that unsuitable The Fleet Forum exemplifies a successful partnership. It
materials are often used when rebuilding housing after a has helped HOs make their fleet management more pro-
disaster, such as concrete in a warm climate when bamboo fessional and sustainable. TNT’s employees were able to
would be better. These new forms of construction disrupt volunteer for humanitarian endeavors, which increased their
existing land use and ecosystems, increase risks of further satisfaction.
SUSTAINABLE HUMANITARIAN OPERATIONS: AN INTEGRATED PERSPECTIVE 4401
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FIGURE 2 Fleet Forum’s triple bottom line approach to fleet management professionalization

Partnerships between industry and HOs are different than into the device, where a cartridge already contains all the
partnerships between governments and HOs. Companies are syntenic proteins that indicate the presence of genetic mate-
among the first responders and have considerable resources, rial from the Ebola virus. This machine reduces the exposure
but building trust between HOs and the private sector is a of lab technicians because everything is sealed, and it has
challenge. At the workshop, one of its founding members reduced the time required to conduct diagnostics from days to
shared: “The Fleet Forum was successful because people had hours. The cartridges must be incinerated at 1200◦ C, beyond
time to build relationships and trust.” HOs should ask them- the capacity of HOs’ current equipment, so now HOs need to
selves what they expect from the private sector. Balaisyte find innovative incinerators that can do the job while remain-
et al. (2017) formulate several propositions on how the suc- ing small, portable, and cost effective. Clearly, faster and
cess of cross-sector partnerships depends on partner selection safer diagnostics is a tremendous step forward, but even more
and the partnership formation, implementation and postfor- progress would be made if the cartridge disposal problem had
mation stages, and Stadtler and Van Wassenhove (2016) draw been addressed in advance. This is a consistent theme in other
some lessons on how employees at competing logistics firms contexts as well: Sustainability concerns associated with an
were able to collaborate successfully within the context of innovation should ideally be addressed during its design by
the Logistics Emergency Teams, which supports the Logistics taking a life-cycle approach.
Cluster led by the WFP. Disposal of syringes poses similar challenges; one sur-
Is it necessary for HOs to start partnerships themselves, vey respondent pointed to a more sustainable approach, in
or could there be some kind of broker to bridge this gap the form of sharp containers that come in larger sizes (pre-
(e.g., Bhattacharya et al., 2014)? There have been attempts ferred by many healthcare organizations) and that are shipped
to create platforms (e.g., AIDMATRIX, Google), but more flat and assembled when needed. Decouttere et al. (2021)
can be done. Participants from industry agree that funding is discuss ways in which integrating the planned and emer-
available for partnerships, but there must be a clear under- gency immunization systems can lead to more sustainable
standing of how to prioritize its use. The private sector can be outcomes.
very influential in filling institutional voids. For example, if
governments would have tried to eliminate child labor world-
wide without the participation of the private sector, the results 2.5.2 Local versus global
would likely have been even more limited.
Lack of local resources can hinder global initiatives. One HO
did not have enough local surgeons for the training program
2.5 Health it was developing. Even if the best healthcare products are
available, they are useless if no nurses are available to admin-
2.5.1 Practical examples of the potential for ister them. Reality in the field may be worse than one would
sustainability improvement in health think. For example, the entire government of Liberia fled to
the United States to escape local conditions during the Ebola
Health is a critical component of humanitarian operations if virus outbreak in 2014–2015. In the Democratic Republic of
the local healthcare system is weak and has limited capacity the Congo, WHO is the de facto ministry of health. Further-
to deal with disasters. For example, diagnostics is an impor- more, recipient countries need staff who can do more than
tant tool in the fight against the Ebola virus. A newly invented just follow procedures, such as initiating new types of drugs.
diagnostic machine, comparable to a desktop computer rack, This expertise is nearly nonexistent in some places, so a “han-
allows health workers to insert a blood sample from a patient dover” to a country does not always work. The capacity of
4402 CORBETT ET AL.
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local regions must be developed to help improve the sus- illustrated clearly in the context of pandemics like COVID-
tainability of local healthcare systems. Spiegel (2017) cites 19. Money is typically released only after an epidemic has
reports that only 0.2% of international humanitarian assis- reached its exponential growth phase, by which time mas-
tance was channeled through local and national NGOs in sive funding is required. Buffer funds might help provide
2014. money very quickly based on early data. An alternative would
Strengthening local health systems is widely recognized as be to identify the actors that have incentives to make quick
essential, but can involve counterintuitive effects. For exam- investments earlier, such as insurance companies, who risk
ple, many nurses leave Kenya for the United Arab Emirates of going out of business if a disease exceeds a threshold.
to seek higher pay. This may sound detrimental to Kenya’s Clearly, health needs more innovative financing. While more
healthcare system, but that is not necessarily the case. The money would undoubtedly be helpful, current funding levels
lucrative career opportunities abroad increase demand for could be used more effectively. Even investing in the capac-
nurse training in Kenya, which helps increase the supply and ity of local health systems introduces the related challenge
quality of the local training infrastructure. Nurses are a signif- identified by Spiegel (2017) that humanitarian health aid can
icant export from the Philippines, but enough nurses remain disrupt national healthcare cost recovery systems.
in the country to improve the local healthcare system beyond Academics can help improve the sustainability of health-
the level of other countries with similar incomes. care systems, but need to work more in close collaboration
with the field (Besiou & Van Wassenhove, 2020). The first
principle of humanitarian action is do no harm. To respect this
2.5.3 Metrics and incentives basic principle, academics should familiarize themselves with
the specific context. One survey respondent cautioned, based
It is often much easier to measure inputs than outputs or on a study in Nairobi, that software systems for inventory
outcomes, but outputs and outcomes are ultimately more control may be counterproductive in developing countries, as
meaningful. Consider an international HO that measures simple manual or intuition-based systems may be more suit-
“access to medicines.” If the product is available in the HO’s able in settings with small scale, low IT literacy, and high staff
country, then the HO’s score would increase, but that does turnover. Karamshetty et al. (2022) offer a detailed descrip-
not mean people actually have access to the product. The tion of the often informal way in which inventory decisions
last-mile distribution of medicine in developing countries is are made at a selection of healthcare facilities in Nairobi.
a major hurdle. Similarly, health organizations may mea- Because data collection and understanding the context
sure the number of children who are vaccinated, but a better takes more time, it can take longer to publish papers on
outcome measure is how many children live to age 5. It is humanitarian healthcare compared to normal healthcare. One
imperative to determine the reason why some do not sur- must know exactly how the data were collected and how they
vive, but this is typically unknown. Most case studies focus can be interpreted. Models of humanitarian healthcare are
on success stories, so the reasons for mistakes are poorly usually not very sophisticated because of a lack of data, which
understood. Success is also frequently measured based on hurts publication prospects in top academic journals.
short-term pilots instead of a successful and sustainable roll-
out at full scale, a disconnect analyzed more fully by Banerjee
et al. (2017). 3 HUMANITARIAN OPERATIONS
Donors tend to continuously create new vertical programs AND SOCIETY
rather than improve horizontal coordination between them.
This limits the impact of these programs and leads to redun- Besides the five main areas discussed so far, the workshop
dancy and waste. It would be better to allocate the next addressed several other relationships between HOs and the
marginal dollar to community health workers but such an societies within which they operate. Understanding these is
initiative would require crossing silos. also vital for the sustainability of humanitarian operations.
A different incentive problem arises when private compa-
nies donate medicines that are (almost) expired in order to
benefit from tax breaks, burdening the recipient country with 3.1 Media
the disposal costs; this occurred again recently in the context
of COVID-19 vaccines (Lazarus et al., 2022). Mark Hunter (a lecturer at INSEAD) argued that the media
sector is no longer dominated exclusively by mainstream
organizations, but includes a broad spectrum of stakeholder-
2.5.4 What would it take for humanitarian driven media, such as High Country News, Heat Street, and
healthcare to be more sustainable? Greenpeace.org. As a result, “The audience for the media is
no longer the public, it’s a community. The first concern is
A common immediate answer is more money. However, it is unifying the community instead of a wide media audience.
paradoxically often very difficult to obtain a small amount of Make sure that people that share your values and vision get
money quickly to avoid a tremendous expense later. This is involved.”
SUSTAINABLE HUMANITARIAN OPERATIONS: AN INTEGRATED PERSPECTIVE 4403
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News about disasters reaches us through many channels 3.4 Human talent
that have different goals, and that sometimes want to change
the outcome. Hunter mentioned how following Hurricane Any attempt to increase the sustainability of humanitarian
Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017, some (conservative) audiences operations must include the workers. HOs develop a lot of
were presented with a description of a successful response, knowledge but lose it due to high staff turnover. One partic-
while Human Rights Watch had a completely different story. ipant noted that very few staff had prior experience working
This role of the media is illustrated by Long et al.’s (2020) in a crisis, and nobody seemed to have knowledge of what
finding that individuals’ evacuation decisions in Florida and happened in previous crises.
Texas in 2017 were significantly influenced by political affil- HOs usually race from one emergency to another. This hec-
iation. It is important to understand the way media works tic pace allows minimal time for reflection between crises,
today and its impact on humanitarian operations. HOs are and contributes to high staff turnover. Both factors conspire to
very vulnerable to the new media. The media impact fund- produce a short-term mindset in which the lessons of the past
ing and donations to humanitarian operations (Eftekhar et al., are often forgotten. Individuals often do not stay with their
2017), and HOs risk becoming a political target when they HO very long, so they do not receive credit when a long-term
point to the factors that caused a crisis. The way forward solution is successful, which is detrimental to sustainabil-
requires thorough coordination among stakeholder-driven ity. “Short-termism” is also rife at for-profit corporations, but
media organizations, such as those managed by NGOs and these organizations have viable options (e.g., stop reporting
mainstream media. quarterly earnings), while HOs cannot change the frequency
of disasters or the conditions imposed by donors. The com-
bination of more frequent disasters and decreased funding
3.2 Governance exacerbate this tension.
Recently, the United Nations was involved in a study
Ludo Van der Heyden (an emeritus professor at INSEAD) to understand how the context of a humanitarian response
argues that governance is about values, but that in the NGO impacts humanitarian workers. The lack of support and
sector, governance and execution are often intermingled. The recognition awarded to those who respond to crises has
boards of nonprofits are responsible for governing, not exe- created generations of ex-humanitarians who were severely
cuting, but often donors receive seats on the board and traumatized by what they experienced in the field, which
get involved in making operational decisions and execu- is not sustainable. This lack of support inhibits future
tion rather than limiting themselves to governing. It can be generations of humanitarians from taking on challenging
very difficult for an NGO to remove such a donor from assignments and making the emotionally hard choices that are
day-to-day decision making. Everybody wants to save the inescapable in effective humanitarian responses. In the words
world, but each in their own way. Saez et al. (2021) exam- of one participant: There is a need to invest more in how to
ine the particular challenges associated with governance of support people and how we help them to help themselves in
HOs in more detail and suggest how some changes in over- this context. If we do not do that, the efforts afterwards to
all governance structure could make humanitarian relief more repair those issues that we got wrong in the first place are
effective. multiple times more costly than what we could have done if
we have prevented it. In other words, the humanitarian sector
should not focus only on the well-being of its beneficiaries,
3.3 Gender but also its own.

Humanitarian operations must consider the way societies are

organized (Tomasini & Van Wassenhove, 2009). After the 4 CONCLUSIONS
school closures and quarantines during the 2014–2016 Ebola
virus outbreak in West Africa, girls and women suffered more This workshop summary has discussed five main areas in
sexual violence and exploitation, and did not receive infor- which humanitarian responses could be more sustainable:
mation on how they could better protect themselves from material convergence, coordination between HOs, logistics,
the disease (John et al., 2020). Vaccination campaigns led partnerships with industry, and health. We discussed exam-
to gender-based violence when aid workers requested sex- ples in which humanitarian relief is not as sustainable as
ual services for treatment. The United Nations Office for it could be or has become more sustainable, often revolv-
Disaster Risk Reduction recognizes that gender perspectives ing around the tension between short-term and long-term
in disaster risk reduction could be better addressed.12 Patel responses, as well as between local and global capabili-
et al. (2020) point out that although women are often dis- ties. Each of the areas would benefit from the use of more
proportionately affected by humanitarian crises, and although appropriate metrics and incentives. The workshop also high-
women make up over 40% of frontline humanitarian workers, lighted several aspects of the changing and complex interplay
their role as leaders in humanitarian settings has been largely between HOs and the societies in which they operate: the
ignored. role of the media, the shortcomings of the governance of
4404 CORBETT ET AL.
Production and Operations Management

nonprofits, the inadequate attention given to gender-based all 106 participants in the event. A number of staff mem-
perspectives, and the damage caused by poor management of bers at INSEAD contributed to the success of the event.
human talent. This is by no means an exhaustive list of chal- The organizers express their special gratitude to Carole
lenges, but it already pinpoints many opportunities to make Tanguy and Ansa Mohammad for all their help. We are
humanitarian responses more sustainable. When humanitar- grateful to INSEAD for financial support for the workshop.
ian operations are seen through the lens of the DMC, there are We are grateful to Kal Singhal and Chris Tang for han-
long-term actions that can improve their sustainability. Most dling this paper. We appreciate helpful comments from Henk
of these actions must be put in place either before a crisis Akkermans, Stephen Commins, Mahyar Eftekhar, Wolfgang
or during the long-term rehabilitation that follows the imme- Herbinger, José Holguín-Veras, Beril Toktay, and an anony-
diate response; incorporating sustainability is more feasible mous reviewer on an earlier version of this paper, and we are
during preparation, rehabilitation, and mitigation than during particularly grateful to multiple rounds of insightful feedback
the immediate response. from Marianne Jahre. As usual, all opinions and errors are the
Sustainability involves several humanitarian stakeholders, sole responsibility of the authors.
ranging from global donors to local beneficiaries. Donors
need a better understanding of the implications of funding ENDNOTES
mechanisms that favor response over preparedness, includ- 1 Hewlett-Packard. https://garage.hp.com/us/en/impact/haiti-recycling-
ing responses to epidemics or pandemics, and that favor the plastic.html. Accessed February 21, 2022.
2 WHO.int. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/health-care-
use of earmarked funding over flexible funding. The voices
of beneficiaries must be heard to implement sustainable waste. Accessed February 21, 2022.
3 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
solutions that respect their culture and dignity. Coordina- https://www.unocha.org/story/us219-billion-needed-2019-average-
tion between global and local actors is also fundamental to length-humanitarian-crises-climbs. Accessed February 21, 2022.
improve the sustainability of humanitarian operations. Local 4 For example, the Grand Bargain, which is an agreement between large

knowledge and connections are vital for success, even for donors and global HOs, commits to “get more means into the hands
experienced disaster response groups. Global lessons should of people in need and to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the
humanitarian action.” https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/grand-
be combined with local knowledge. Coordination between bargain. Accessed Feb 21, 2022.
HOs would also help. Initiatives such as the cluster system, 5 See, for instance, https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/
while imperfect, have many potential benefits, such as reduc- coordination/clusters/what-cluster-approach, accessed February 26,
ing costs and avoiding duplication. However, coordination 2022.
6 See, for instance, https://www.wfp.org/support-us/stories/herbert-sherp,
has its own challenges, including overcoming cultural barri-
accessed February 26, 2022.
ers or integrating different operating standards. Partnerships 7 “RUTF is used by UNICEF to help the millions of children threatened
between the humanitarian and private sectors are important by acute malnutrition worldwide. It doesn’t require refrigeration and stays
as well. For such partnerships to be sustainable, the parties fresh for up to two years. Best of all, no mixing with potentially contam-
involved must build trust and a basic understanding of each inated water is required.” From https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/what-
other’s context. Altogether, the workshop pointed out many ready-use-therapeutic-food/32481. Accessed February 21, 2022.
8 https://www.unocha.org/es/themes/engagement-private-sector/how-
ways in which humanitarian operations can be more sustain- private-sector-helps-emergencies. Accessed February 26, 2022.
able, despite the obvious tension between the immediacy of 9 https://www.airbus.com/company/sustainability/airbus-foundation/

a disaster response and the longer term perspective inherent partnering-with-the-humanitarian-community.html. Accessed February
in sustainable development. Most of what we have discussed 21, 2022.
10 https://www.fleetforum.org/team-fleetforum. Accessed February 21,
is well known to leading practitioners in this field, includ-
2022.
ing many of the workshop participants, but we hope that this 11 The North Star Alliance—which is still active—was also born out of the
overview will encourage others to explore this fascinating and TNT–WFP alliance with the mission to “… provide quality healthcare
vital domain. to mobile workers and the communities they interact with.” https://www.
northstar-alliance.org. Last accessed June 14, 2021.
12 Toward a Post-2015 Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. The United
AC K N OW L E D G M E N T S
Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. See https://www.unisdr.org/
Charles Corbett, Dan Guide, and Alfonso Pedraza-Martinez files/25129_towardsapost2015frameworkfordisaste.pdf. Accessed Febru-
designed the workshop in close consultation with Luk Van ary 21, 2022.
Wassenhove. The authors are grateful to Dan Guide for
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4406 CORBETT ET AL.
Production and Operations Management

Spiegel, P. B. (2017). The humanitarian system is not just broke, but broken: practitioners focusing on humanitarian issues or sustainabil-
recommendations for future humanitarian action. The Lancet, June 8. ity. First, we sent a preworkshop survey to all the invited
Stadtler, L., & Van Wassenhove, L. N. (2016). Coopetition as a para-
guests. This survey asked for examples in which humani-
dox: Integrative approaches in a multi-company, cross-sector partnership.
Organization Studies, 37(5), 655–685. tarian response could be more sustainable or was already
Tomasini, R. M., & Van Wassenhove, L. N. (2009). Humanitarian logistics. sustainable.
Palgrave Macmillan. Next, using these responses and the organizers’ research
USAID. (2020). Sustainability in humanitarian supply chains: A prelimi- experience on humanitarian operations and sustainable oper-
nary scoping of improvements in packaging. https://www.usaid.gov/food-
ations, we decided the five areas for discussion in breakout
assistance/documents/preliminary-scoping-improvements-packaging-
waste-management groups. For each breakout group, we invited two participants
Yan, L., & Pedraza-Martinez, A. J. (2019). Social media for disaster man- in advance to act as facilitators, but the rest of the participants
agement: Operational value of the social conversation. Production and could choose which breakout group to join. Each breakout
Operations Management, 28(10), 2514–2532. group was assigned an INSEAD researcher or a PhD stu-
dent to take notes. We included short plenary talks on several
other topics that we considered important but not suited for
How to cite this article: Corbett, C. J., breakout groups.
Pedraza-Martinez, A. J., & Van Wassenhove, L. N. The workshop counted 106 participants, including 72 fac-
(2022). Sustainable humanitarian operations: An ulty members (with five former PhD students of Luk), nine
integrated perspective. Production and Operations humanitarian practitioners, seven industry practitioners, and
Management, 31, 4393–4406. five current PhD students. Other participants were predoctoral
https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.13848 researchers, postdoctoral fellows, and staff from INSEAD
who have supported Luk Van Wassenhove over the years.
The data underlying this paper consist of the 11 prework-
shop surveys (a total of 3849 words), 477 min of workshop
APPENDIX A: WORKSHOP DESIGN recordings (275 min of video and 202 min of audio), notes
The objective of this workshop was to examine how to make from the five breakout groups (14,910 words), and four
humanitarian operations more sustainable. It was intended workshop presentation decks with a total of 37 pages of
to include input from a broad range of academics and content.