Governance at the crossroads: Managing cross-sector partnerships in humanitarian logistics

Kirjoittaja Ngoc Vu palkittiin huhtikuussa 2026 LOGYn kannusteapurahalla Hankenilla tekemästään väitöskirjatyöstä. Hänen väitöskirjansa nimi on “Governance at the crossroads: Managing cross-sector partnerships in humanitarian logistics”.

Humanitarian logistics research and societal resilience

The research discipline in humanitarian logistics (HL) is rather “young”, with foundational studies being first published only at the beginning of the 2000s. HL concerns the logistics and supply chain management for preparation for, responding to, and recovering from a humanitarian crises, which aims at saving lives and alleviating sufferings of the affected communities. As multiple humanitarian crises currently unfold around the world, this research discipline has become more important by using practice-based and collaborative research with field practitioners to inform better decision-making and operations.

Besides humanitarian crises, increasing geopolitical risks urgently call for more efficient and collaborative resource mobilisation to strengthen societal resilience. Societal resilience concerns how effectively the community responds to shocks caused by crises (e.g. natural hazards, disease outbreak) and resumes (or even improves beyond) the pre-crisis operations.

Cross-sector partnerships (CSPs) bring together public, private, and non-profit sectors to timely address the shared societal goal of building resilience. Given the nature of HL in which involved actors need to mobilise aid rapidly while continuingly building resilience in communities, investigating CSPs in the humanitarian sector provides unique and transferrable insights for other sectors. Findings from the context of HL inform more efficient resource mobilisation both for ad-hoc responses and for building long-term resilience. At the end of the day, building resilience requires the collaborative efforts across different functions of society.

From practice-based research in the Global South...

My doctoral research explores the role of governance mechanisms in cross-sector partnerships (CSPs) for enhancing resources mobilisation in HL. Governance concerns the use of different mechanisms (e.g. contractual, trust-based/relational) to regulate and steer self-organising a network of multiple actors (i.e. CSPs) to achieve a shared goal. The research asks questions such as ‘How are costs and rewards weighted and distributed in a CSP?’ and ‘How does the power dynamics evolve (or not) through different phases of HL (preparation, response, recovery)?’.

The research is grounded in case studies set in the Global South contexts (Africa and Asia-Pacific), where I investigate how public, private, and non-profit sectors strategically collaborate in HL. These regions are selected due to their rich sociocultural contexts shaping the practice of HL and an increasing involvement of non-traditional actors (e.g. private sector) in the humanitarian science. The multilateral interactions within a partnership are indeed not static, but rather dynamic and context-based. Using system dynamics methodology, I am enabled to capture these dynamic interactions on both short-term and long-term time horizons. The research findings offer a holistic picture of how different governance mechanisms enable CSPs to mobilise resources efficiently and build long-term relationships, thus building societal resilience.

…to implications for Finland

First, the findings offer decision-makers in the humanitarian sector (e.g. donors, UN agencies. humanitarian organisations) with evaluation of different governance mechanisms that can be considered in practice to streamline resource mobilisation and collaborative capacity building. Second, case studies from the Global South offer valuable insights for engaging partners of different backgrounds to collaboratively prepare for and respond to imminent crises. In the case of Finland, security of supply as part of societal resilience strongly benefits from collaborative efforts between public and non-public actors, as stipulated by Huoltovarmuuskeskus / The National Emergency Supply Agency.

Last, an integral part of this research is validation of findings with practitioners, which is a unique opportunity for sharing lessons learned and best practices between partners across sectors. Overall, this research strives to leverage CSPs as a platform for fostering social bonds and strengthening societal resilience for crises.

Ngoc Vu
Doctoral Researcher
Hanken School of Economics