2013 Conference on Health and Humanitarian Logistics

MIT Humanitarian Logistics Lab 2013 Conference on Health & Humanitarian Logistics

The annual Health and Humanitarian Logistics Conference will be held June 4-5, 2013, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The conference, now in its fifth year, is being held for the first time in Asia, where humanitarian response is especially critical. In 2011, Asia accounted for 86.3% of reported disaster victims worldwide (“Annual Disaster Statistical Review 2011: The Numbers and Trends,” Brussels, CRED, 2012).  In addition, Malaysia is the hub for humanitarian logistics in Asia, hosting key facilities such as the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) and the Red Cross (IFRC) Regional Logistics Unit.

The conference will be hosted by the Malaysia Institute of Supply Chain Innovation (MISI), which is a member of the MIT Global SCALE Network, and co-organized by Georgia Tech and MIT. The mission of the conference is to stimulate innovation and build capacity for supply chains that meet basic human needs around the world. It brings together high-level speakers from across the health and humanitarian sectors, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), industry, academia and government.

Activities will encourage discourse among participants through plenary panels, interactive workshops, educational workshops, innovation posters and facility tours. Discussions will focus on the role of logistics in areas such as disaster response, health systems and food security as well as highlight the unique logistical challenges for humanitarian response in Asia. Ideas will be shared around emerging themes such as extending the reach of specialized nutrition products, exploring the role of social media and big data during crises, and examining the unique challenges for logistics in urban settings. You are welcome to email your ideas for panel themes, workshop topics, and potential speakers/facilitators to humlog2013@mit.edu or humlog2013@isye.gatech.edu.

Previous conferences have been made possible through public and private sponsorship. If your organization would like to co-sponsor the 2013 Health and Humanitarian Logistics Conference, please contact the conference organizers at one of the above email addresses. A formal invitation with information about the conference program, accommodations, poster submissions and registration procedures will be provided at a later date. The most current information will be posted at http://humanitarian.gatech.edu/humlog2013 and http://www.misi.edu.my.