Actors in the Humanitarian Community

Organizations over the past few decades have come to realize two things, there are a limited number of people in the government that are able to respond to natural disasters or large scale disaster effectively and that the government only has so many available resources to offer during a time of crisis. Another fact is, that private sector companies and non-profit entities, such as the Red Cross, have the ability to be more prepared due to their vast network of stores and distribution centers and their leisure, they indeed do have a unique responsibility

Effective disaster management is highly important when it comes to assisting in rescue and relief to affected. This does not only include post disaster rescue efforts but these disaster management activities should be proactive. They start right from taking preventive measures before the disaster actually occurs and goes on till the effected people are resettled back in their lives. This disaster management pertaining to human life is not only associated with physical well being but also focuses on psychological, emotional, and spiritual rehabilitation.

I would like to propose that the World Health Organization takes a more active role in this area and create a more sophisticated quick response branch that embeds personnel in an effective manner. This will take much logistical planning and preparedness, perhaps the successes could be used analogously in this country to strengthen FEMA’s responses.

David Rieff talks about the idea of the “international community which gives both the humanitarian worker and the victims of crisis “false hope” that something will be done (Rieff, 2003). He says that “the moment one taps on to the idea of the international community, it (humanitarianism) falls part like a toy” (Rieff 2003, p.9). The concept of international community, however vague or disastrous it might seem or sound, is also the source of logistics for

In a state of national emergency, the United States government is expected to be efficient and organized. When Hurricane Katrina struck on August 25th, 2005, the United States government was not readily prepared for such an immense disaster. The mismanagement of relief efforts by the U.S. government led to a lack of adequate assistance to U.S. victims along with a prolonged restoration period for those in need. Had the government accepted more foreign aid and further prepared for the storm, hurricane Katrina may not have proved such a disaster in our nation’s history. This essay will explain how foreign aid was integrated into the relief effort. Additionally, this essay will explore the government’s refusal of aid from various countries

Emergency disaster situations can be defined in three ways accidental, natural, or wilful. An accidental disaster refers to an event which is totally unexpected such as a house fire started by an electrical fault. Similarly, an illustration of a natural disaster would be the recent earthquakes which took place in Christchurch, NZ between September 2010 and February 2011 that resulted in devastating and far reaching consequences for the country. Foremost in many minds when recollecting a wilful disaster would be the terror attacks of 9.11 in the USA. A disaster of this magnitude has never been experienced during peace time in our lifetime. This essay will examine three different aspects of rescue management procedure where reports detailing disaster and emergency response must be studied to understand and improve our handling of rescue operations.

Each disaster response should start at the local or state level, and then depending on the magnitude it may grow to the response level only the federal government can provide. The initial response to an emergency by the state should deal with the emergency needs of the public. The State’s responsibility will be to focus around control of communication procedures; warning of the upcoming emergency if possible, providing public information, any information regarding evacuations and shelter (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 1996). Beyond controlling communication, the state will also be responsible to alert and dispatch the required emergency response teams to engage in protection of people and their property, and if needed a request for aid from the Federal Government (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 1996).

After the Haitian earthquake in January of 2012, the people of Haiti were faced with a serious challenge. Being one of the poorest countries in the world didn’t help the challenge at all. Help was still going to come anyway. Urgent supplies were sent in immediately like food, water, shelter and medicine. These first responders helped look for missing people and recovered the dead. Later, people help rebuild destroyed homes and buildings. Even after all of the natural

Throughout the world, there are many humanitarian organizations, there are many that we don’t know of. Some of these humanitarian programmes range from local, national to international. There will be one of each of these organizations introduced.

Also the ability to find temporary shelter is one of the responsibilities I have to take under consideration when planning and organizing the evacuation process after a disaster. The American Red Cross, the organization has shelters set up across the emergency route as and they have the resources to accommodate all persons looking for safe and sufficient refuge they also make available food and medication to families that have evacuated from the flood.

It is imperative that relief be linked with development because they both largely dominate any emergency situation simultaneously no matter where it takes place or even when. Furthermore, relief and development are connected by three important factors such as timing, funding, and last but not least information. Also, the most important challenge between relief being linked with development is understanding that they are related, but very much different. Additionally, the challenges come when one tries to understand that there is a grey area among relief and development which we have to find in order to see progress.

In this kind of disaster, the government should react quickly and execute its plans quickly to ensure that it makes the right decision at the turning point. However, in this case, both the local government and the federal government were always one step behind the changing situation. The government’s failures in its crisis communication to the public were as follows:

The 2010 earthquake in Haiti led to one of the largest disaster response efforts of modern times. The enormous influx of NGO’s significantly overcomplicated the response efforts, leading to delays in the management of the relief teams (UNEG 2010). To rectify the situation, the U.S military took the lead and coordinated the effort through a joint task force (JTF) (Bhattacharjee & Lossio 2011). Despite the military’s security and logistical expertise, concerns were raised over its ability to handle large humanitarian operations (U.S Government 2011).

Throughout the world, nations are struck by inevitable disasters that agitate the equilibrium of everyday lives. From the destruction to relief, the Economic and Social Council takes on humanitarian actions to aid the ones who are in need. ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment compiles together members of the United Nations to assist and ease affected communities. Every year in June, the Humanitarian Affairs Segment is brought together to devise an action plan on how to approach the most recent disaster. With this technique, they are able to besiege each situation. A possible countermeasure that should be taken is to spread awareness to gain volunteers to be able to initiate the strategy effectively offered by the Humanitarian Affairs Segment.

Often times, natural disasters in the United States get large public media attention for several months. This can be seen in 2005 with Hurricane Katrina or in 2012 with Hurricane Sandy. There were hundreds of people across the country willing to donate food, clothing, and blood for months. However, in contrast the 2011 Tohuku earthquake in Japan received little attention publicly, but still received aid from the United States military. Often times, natural disasters are the first considered for needs of Humanitarian aid, however, that is quiet limiting to the various situations of different states. People of countries could be dealing with health issues, in-state war or external war, as a natural lack of wealth among the people. While many Americans feel that they are responsible for being the superhero of the world since World War II, there is also a strong sentiment that there should be little involvement in external affairs and let the states take their course, whether that be good of bad for the individuals within it. This notion is horrendously outdated in the current global standing of the United States. With as much wealth that is available in the United States, it should be expected that the responsibilities of the United States, as well as other developed countries, is to fulfill the requests made by the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at the minimum, regardless of what state an individual is born to.