Integrating humanitarian operations

David Alexander University College London

Setting the stage...

Hazard

x Vulnerability

= Risk

Impact

Response

Exposure

Vulnerability & marginalisation in the Peruvian Andes, Eastern

Cordillera

Debris slide-falls

Houses destroyed

"informal settlement"

Normal river level

Flood level

Buriganga River, central Bangladesh

Urbanisation spreads onto the floodplain in Tunja, Boyacá, Colombia

In places like Port au Prince, Haiti, and Luanda, Angola, the status

quo ante has often seemed as bad as any disaster impact.

The "informal housing" of the poor is usually

relegated to the least safe places

The 'megacity' problem

Tehran

Tehran

Kathmandu

Kathmandu

İstanbul

İstanbul

Relatively minor damage to transportation systems can paralyse a megacity

• can have very complex patterns, but these are capable of being understood

• results from knowledge not utilised

• poses complex problems of rescue

• casualties are heavily concentrated in urban-metropolitan areas

• reveals poverty-vulnerability linkage.

Seismic vulnerability

Stairwells are often the most vulnerable part of the building during earthquakes, and the first part that people use as they try to escape.

Humanitarian missions

Situations that are complex • logistically • culturally • ethically • morally

...requiring huge levels of

sustained commitment...

• typically in internationally declared disasters up to 70 nations participate in the relief effort

• in the Haiti earthquake of 2010 more than 120 countries contributed

• very large fluxes of relief goods managed with inadequate port facilities

• disputes arose over distribution priorities

• ad hoc strategy does not take adequate account of all factors.

The problem of international co-ordination

The dilemmas of humanitarian assistance in the modern world:-

• faced with situations of injustice and political polarisation it may be impossible to maintain neutrality

• humanitarian assistance can cause unexpected and undesired effects

• the strong reaction to major disasters masks a lack of prevention and preparedness

• badly planned assistance can do more harm than good.

• 12 nations affected = 12 different disasters - complex situation

• temporary export of European health and civil protection systems to Asian countries

• huge imbalance of donations

• the Swedish case (SEMA)

• difficulties with mass mortality: body handling arrangements, arrangements for the bereaved.

The Indian Ocean Tsunami of Dec. 2004

• International assistance should complement, not substitute, local resources

Humanitarian assistance should help a country reach general development goals, not only help disaster victims to survive.

Two principles

• it is slow to mobilise

• it is constrained by national sovreignty

• it includes highly varied motivations and levels of professionality

• it is a reactive system that does little or nothing to reduce disaster risk.

The international disaster relief system is expensive and inefficient

• 43 FFHs studied in three disasters

• average cost: $2000/bed/day

• occupancy <50%

• "No FFH arrived early enough to provide emergency medical trauma care".

Foreign field hospitals: Von Schreeb et al. [2008 - PDM 23(2): 144 et seq.]

Non era una situazione insolita.... In the Bam, Iran, earthquake of 2003, 1,600 rescuers from 43 nations saved only 30 people

In the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti only 133 people were rescued, and only nine of them after day five

• lacking in the necessary equipment

• inefficient and often ineffective

• dangerous for the responders

• dangerous for the rescued person

• no substitute for professional rescue.

Operations such as this are...

• areas at risk need local fully trained and equipped SAR groups

• technology and expertise need to be transferred preventatively to where they are needed

• twinning, exchange between SAR groups

• better building standards, more understanding of SAR requirements.

To avoid scenes like this...

More than 1000 humanitatian agencies work in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh

The essential role of governance: decision making by

democratic participation

• logistical support adequate in the field?

• can disaster-related problems be distinguished from endemic ones?

• can local leaders and stakeholder groups be identified and dialogue started?

• what sort of assistance is really needed?

• is inter-agency co-ordination adequate?.

Some practical considerations

The controversy over transitional shelter: post-disaster shelter solutions have seldom considered urban area problems:- • lack of space for building • need for high-density solutions • intensive provision of services.

Analyse the context

Assess needs

Build scenarios

Set priorities Plan the

response

Issue a consolidated

or flash appeal

Monitor and revise

Report on actions

UN-OCHA Humanitarian Actions

UN-OCHA Clusters:- • Emergency telecommunications • Water and sanitation (WASH) • Emergency shelter • Infrastructure • Early recovery • Agriculture • Education • Health • Food

• radical changes are needed to adapt the world relief system to new realities

• currently the system is inefficient and still too heavily based on reaction rather than prevention

• integration is a matter of voluntary collaboration among a heterogeneous group of agencies, according to a somewhat arbitrary set of rules.

In synthesis...

• emerging risks, pandemics

• climate change & sea-level rise

• millennial events

• poverty/vulnerability complex

• wealth gap.

The imperatives:-

www.slideshare.net /dealexander www.emergency- planning.blogspot.com david.alexander@ucl.ac.uk