Editor's note: The recent tsunami disaster in Asia resulted in massive loss of life, economic disruption and human suffering. It has also brought about a massive outpouring of support for relief and recovery from around the world. Along with these expressions of generosity, there is more widespread recognition of the difficulty that relief agencies face in reaching affected populations in this crisis. These challenges underscore the critical importance of collaborative approaches to humanitarian logistics such as the ones highlighted in the interview with Lynn Fritz below and the related story on Humanitarian Logistics Software in this issue of Global Giving Matters.
A pioneer in the global logistics industry, Lynn Fritz was Chairman and CEO of the Fritz Companies Inc. until his firm was acquired by UPS Inc. in 2001. Under his leadership, Fritz Companies was transformed from a family-owned documentation company to a global organization of 10,000 employees in 120 countries.
He founded the nonprofit, San Francisco-based Fritz Institute (www.fritzinstitute.org) in 2001 to bring together business best practices and academic research to strengthen the capabilities of humanitarian organizations engaged in disaster relief around the globe.
Through a comprehensive, integrated strategy that includes convening the key players in humanitarian aid, providing access to state-of-the-art technology from the commercial arena, and creating a worldwide network of scholars to research best practices, Fritz Institute seeks to improve the delivery of disaster relief.
Fritz also serves as a member of the World Economic Forum's Logistics and Transportation Governors, and is a founder of the Disaster Resource Network (see box at right), an initiative of the Forum that channels support in disasters, particularly from the engineering, construction and logistics industries.
Fritz recently spoke with Global Giving Matters from Geneva, where his agenda included meetings with potential private sector partners for a new Fritz Institute initiative in Africa. Following are highlights from that conversation that focus on one of his current priorities: getting the private sector more involved in disaster relief.
Global Giving Matters: Why did you decide to orient your philanthropy toward humanitarian relief, and what motivated you to create the Fritz Institute?
Lynn Fritz: Like most philanthropists, my efforts were well-intentioned. As I got more interested in philanthropy, however, I saw a curious lack of interest in real accountability, strict business practices, and the use of metrics. I really wanted to get involved in a way that could utilize my business skills and networks, to see if there was a way to apply it to philanthropy.
After some thought and consultation with colleagues, I came to the conclusion that few causes were more in need of global operational expertise than humanitarian aid organizations. They're all global, complex organizations and the Fritz Companies -- that's all we did, we served complex global organizations.
I thought that there would be all kinds of examples of private-public partnerships in this area, only to find out that there were not. It seemed like a wonderful opportunity to do what I wanted to do with my philanthropy, so I created the Fritz Institute.
GGM: How is the Fritz Institute helping to transfer commercial practices and technologies used in global business to the humanitarian relief sector?
Fritz: On the operating side, when you get down "under the hood," to the actual day-to-day running of the business-procurement, warehousing and distribution-we had seen every one of these issues before. We began to turn our attention towards developing technologies that would go across all these humanitarian relief organizations. [See article on the Fritz Institute's Humanitarian Logistics Software, also in this issue.]
We have been able to bring in the expertise of our colleagues from the private sector, not just from the Fritz Companies, but from Intel, and Philips, and other corporations. We're bringing in people who work in purchasing, logistics, financial control, governance, and human resources, and saying, we want you to apply your knowledge to very similar problems in another sector, except you'll be helping millions of people in need and your expertise will be used in a highly leveraged situation.
GGM: What's in it for the private sector companies that get involved in your work?
Fritz: First, it's an easy and effective way for them to respond to their sense of social responsibility. They're asked for a very specific expertise which is focused in a relatively short-term basis. With Fritz Institute as an intermediary, they can fulfill their corporate citizenship while optimizing their corporate investment.
The second thing is that we don't engage in any of this work without having a strong element of measurement, so companies can show their constituencies that their people, their expertise, and their products really have successful social application.
GGM: To date, you've largely underwritten the cost of Fritz Institute yourself, spending $6 million of your own funds. You've recently begun to seek financial contributions from external sources-what impact do you expect this move to have on the Institute's work?
Fritz: The idea is to establish an august list of great companies from around the world, recognize them as "Corporations for Humanity," and to work with them on an ongoing basis because our efforts are getting wider and deeper on so many levels.
We are now focused on raising more money than my own for a couple of reasons: because there is so much work to be done that will require more resources; because we want to make sure that it has for all the constituents an absolute sense of ongoing permanency; and because the more prestigious organizations and foundations that join, the more credibility it lends to what we do.
In private business, I never asked partners to join me unless I was satisfied that we had an absolutely compelling, cogent value proposition. We just started about three months ago to go out not only to corporations, but to other private foundations, to say that if you really want to invest your money and you're interested in the humanitarian sector, we can demonstrate that our approach is a leveraged, measurable way of focusing your funding.
GGM: Looking ahead, what role do you see the Fritz Institute playing three years from now?
Fritz: What we were about in our first three years was getting to know the various key constituencies of the humanitarian ecosystem-providers, the academic community, the private sector, and governmental donors. In three years, if we are successful, the Fritz Institute should be able to go from incremental impact in thought leadership, to making measurable, systemic improvements in the manner and method of humanitarian aid.
For more information on Corporations for Humanity, contact: corporationsforhumanity@fritzinstitute.org, or call +1 (415) 538-8302.
Disaster Resource Network: Linking business know-how with communities in need
Within hours of the earthquake that rocked Bam, Iran, in December, 2003, Uwe Doerken, CEO of DHL Worldwide was on the scene, using his company's global expertise in transportation logistics to help coordinate the flurry of incoming flights carrying relief supplies and personnel that threatened to overwhelm the capabilities of the tiny local airfield.
DHL Worldwide was one of more than a dozen companies mobilized for the relief effort in Bam by the Disaster Resource Network (DRN), an initiative of the World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org). The network leverages the resources of member firms around the globe -- particularly those involved in engineering, transportation, construction and logistics -- to assist humanitarian organizations in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.
In the case of Bam, DRN members worked with humanitarian organizations on the ground to arrange for the transport of emergency teams to the site and of more than 435 tons of relief supplies. Critical satellite communications channels were also made available to aid agencies through DRN.
The impetus for the creation of DRN was the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, which killed more than 20,000 Indians and left hundreds of thousands homeless, according to DRN Executive Director Robert Bellhouse, who serves pro bono from his position as President of PB Telecommunications, Inc., a subsidiary of Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc.
The idea for DRN grew out of the desire expressed by corporate executives attending the January 2001 meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos to channel and coordinate their contributed goods, services and expertise to such disasters in a more effective manner. A year later, in January 2002, DRN was launched under the auspices of the Forum.
"Having one place to access these resources saves time. Every hour saved, means more lives saved," said Lynn Fritz, Director-General of the Fritz Institute and Co-Chair of the DRN Founding Committee. Robert Prieto, Chairman of Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc., also served as Co-Chair of the DRN Founding Committee.
DRN has operational chapters in India, Mexico, the US and Europe, and will soon add a chapter in the Mideast. The work of DRN is facilitated through a clearinghouse that connects requests for disaster relief services with DRN members, and the DRN Executive Network, a community of regional business leaders who are committed to providing help when disaster strikes their region. DRN also provides training in disaster relief operations to business executives and employees.
The DRN is now a foundation, registered as a nonprofit organization in Geneva. It has entered a Memorandum of Intent with the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), to collaborate to increase the involvement of the private sector in international disaster relief efforts.
A new, web-based information resource on disaster management worldwide is up and running at www.DRNglobal.org. The user-friendly website will contain country profiles, and a wealth of emergency response data down to the community level. The rollout of the website focuses on Jordan, site of World Economic Forum in Jordan May 20-22. For more information on the Disaster Resource Network, contact drn@weforum.org.