Participating in the Logistics Cluster's Logistics Response Team Training

The MIT Humanitarian Response Lab participates annually in the Logistics Cluster's Logistics Response Team (LRT) Training, run by the United Nations World Food Programme for logisticians from various humanitarian organizations. The LRT training is a week-long simulated emergency designed to build experience and strengthen partnerships among emergency response professionals.

WFP Transportation Corridor Capacity to Ethiopia

An analysis of the critical transportation corridors for WFP's Ethiopian supply chain

The WFP’s transport of food aid to Ethiopia’s landlocked population is constrained by trans-shipment processing bottlenecks at the port, and limited availability of trucks for inland transport. This thesis analyzes the quantitative and qualitative factors used in selecting routes and mitigating port bottlenecks.

Human and Modeling Approaches to Transportation Planning in Emergency Response

Optimizing the UN fleet of trucks and helicopters to deliver aid

This project focuses on transportation planning for emergency response, from both a behavioral and a modeling perspective. One key element missing from our understanding of humanitarian supply chains is the role of people, whose ability to improvise and to learn from experience may provide some advantages in the humanitarian context. On the other hand, mathematical models can better handle complex information and search large decision spaces. This project seeks to develop better decision-making approaches by understanding and building upon the strengths of people and models.

MIT Course on Humanitarian Logistics (ESD.283)

Humanitarian Logistics course open to students from various programs

The MIT graduate course on Humanitarian Logistics (ESD.283) explores how logistics management principles apply when responding to humanitarian crises. Class sessions combine interactive presentations, case discussions, practical exercises, and guest speakers. All students participate in a team project that utilizes data and information directly from UN, government, NGO and private sector sources. The course is designed to accommodate students from various backgrounds, including those with limited supply chain experience.

Humanitarian Studies Initiative

The Humanitarian Studies Initiative is a collaborative education program organized by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative with support from Tufts, MIT and McGill University. It's goal is to train graduate students and professionals who are interested in pursuing careers in the field of humanitarian response. he MIT Humanitarian Response Lab provides the logistics curriculum for the fall semester course and spring two-week intense course, leading an in-class exercise on procurement and facilitating Logistics Cluster meetings during an immersive, weekend simulation.

Optimizing a WFP Warehouse

Analytical Hierarchy Process to help the WFP chose the location of an Ethiopian warehouse

WFP needed to locate new warehouses in the Somali region of Ethiopia to facilitate efficient flows from ports to final distribution points. Given the challenges of gathering the extensive data required for traditional network design techniques, as well as WFP’s desire to incorporate qualitative criteria, this study used the Analytic Hierarchy Process to structure the decision making.

Humanitarian Aid in Less Secure Regions

An analysis of WFP operations in the Somali region of Ethiopia

Security concerns and poor infrastructure in the Somali region of Ethiopia endanger and delay the flow of commodities through the WFP’s supply chain. This thesis analyzes the impact on transportation rates and transit time, assesses methods to mitigate risks, such as escorted convoys, and proposes some new approaches to improve the overall security of commodity flows.

Cost Drivers in Food Aid Transportation

Modeling transportation pricing for the WFP’s Ethiopian supply chain

How can WFP Ethiopia better manage third-party transportation carriers to improve service quality and reduce costs? This study uses an econometric analysis of historical transportation rates in Ethiopia to determine cost/service drivers and predictive parameters. We also develop indicators to measure carrier performance and create a tool to facilitate carrier selection.

Understanding Needs after the Haiti Earthquake

Developing a Multi-Sectoral Needs Assessment to Track Demand Over Time

The Humanitarian Response Lab worked with the US Government and members of the humanitarian community to develop a multi-sectoral humanitarian needs assessment. We were part of a team that developed and deployed a four-month survey of internally displaced persons camps in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. The resulting data identified urgent needs -- such as camps with little access to shelter -- and showed how the needs of those in the camps changed over time.

Forecasting Demand for Partners in Health

Managing the growth of a non-profit healthcare supply chain in Haiti

This project develops a model using historical consumption data of Partners in Health’s medical supplies to forecast future demand. We compare PIH’s current annual order policy with ordering policies with more frequent reviews, and find that more frequent orders will drastically reduce warehouse space requirements for PIH.

Mission

The mission of the MIT Humanitarian Response Lab is to help meet human needs by understanding and improving the crisis response systems behind public services and private markets. Based within the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, the Response Lab combines MIT expertise in engineering, management, technology, economics, urban studies and planning and other disciplines to drive practical innovation for humanitarian response.

Education

The MIT Humanitarian Response Lab develops humanitarian leaders through graduate coursework, practical projects and simulation training. Graduate coursework is concentrated in logistics and supply chain management, and MIT collaborates with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and the Tufts Feinstein International Center to support the broader Humanitarian Studies Initiative. Students in the Response Lab build on coursework by conducting relevant research projects for companies, NGOs and governmental bodies. Finally, MIT actively facilitates simulation training with organizations like the UN Logistics Cluster.

Research

The MIT Humanitarian Response Lab conducts research to understand and improve crisis response systems. It focuses on two key components within these systems: supply chain management and decision making processes. Supply chains are the critical link in meeting needs with supplies provided by donors; and MIT researchers have years of experience designing supply chains and developing management approaches. Response Lab researchers also combine experience in optimizing decisions and developing technology to create new automation tools and decision support systems for a broad range of critical decisions during a crisis.

Practice

The MIT Humanitarian Response Lab strives to place students in the field and put ideas into practice. Educational courses incorporate guest speakers and exercises drawn from field experience, and instructors work to connect students with internships and other field-based engagements. All research projects involve partners from the government, NGO and or private sectors, and researchers remain involved with partners through implementation challenges. Finally, the Response Lab aims to build capacity on the MIT campus to play a productive role in supporting response actions.

If you would like to learn more, please contact Jarrod Goentzel (goentzel@mit.edu).