A three-day conference in Hamburg organized by the Kühne
Logistics University and the French graduate business school INSEAD
is discussing ways to address the complex challenges faced by
humanitarian actors who have to set up and maintain supply chains
to respond to the needs of people caught up emergencies.

The conference, which ends today, brings together actors from
across the health and humanitarian aid sectors, including
governments, international agencies, NGOs, academia and the private
sector.

"Each humanitarian emergency is a reminder that a loss of time
is a loss of life. Faced with increasingly frequent, complex and
unpredictable emergencies in areas with poor infrastructure,
humanitarians have no choice but to finds ways to reduce response
times by improving their logistics and supply chains and by
pre-positioning assistance assets for rapid deployment in times of
need," said IOM Deputy Director General Laura Thompson, speaking at
the event.

Participants agreed that current and future humanitarian
challenges could only be met through improved multi-sectorial
collaboration and partnerships.

"The development of partnerships between humanitarian actors,
the private sector, academia, the military and government officials
is fundamental to strengthen humanitarian interventions and save
lives," said Ambassador Thompson.

In 2011, the Kühne Foundation provided IOM staff in Iraq
with logistics and supply chain management support and visited
IOM's Erbil hub to evaluate its warehousing and procurement
activities in the field.

For more information, please contact:

Mario Lito Malanca

IOM Geneva

Tel: +41 22 717 94 55

E-mail: "mailto:mmalanca@iom.int">mmalanca@iom.int