Update on Recent Humanitarian Crises and Response Efforts

Dr. Patricia R. Hastings

  1. Advances in International Assistance

    2. International assistance in the last decade of the millennium became recognized as a professional and legitimate endeavor. However, it is not a place for the naïve. Whether natural or man-made disasters the numbers of disasters and the victims are increasing. While response is important, preparation even more so and mitigation the goal we strive toward; prevention remains elusive.

  2. Learning Objectives
    1. An understanding of the international / regional response
    2. Review the interface of emergency and development phases
    3. Discussion of the pros and cons of technology
    4. Describe future trends and possible responses
  1. Explanation of key points
    1. Response has improved – small circle of people that do this offers some consistency
    1. Coordination and sharing are improved
    2. OCHA coordination is improved
    3. Inter-NGO coordination better
    4. Civil/Military beneficial to both sides
    5. Coordination mechanism not defined
    1. Education and professionalization
    1. Lessons "learned"
    2. "Early Warning" -Trends
    3. Assessments
    1. Rapid
    2. How to respond
    1. Measures of Success
    1. At times confuse activity with accomplishment
    2. What is the desired end state?

    5. Career paths / "Staff college"

    1. Advent of funding mechanisms
    1. Development in 1980s
    2. Emergency in 1990s
    3. "Both" in this decade
    4. Combined appeals – match resources to needs
    5. Understanding of the effects of HA on a country’s economy and sovereignty
    6. Military funding
    1. Regional alliances
    2. Governments more prepared
    3. Peacekeeping
    1. NGO community
    1. 20% of US GNP
    2. $1,000,000,000 for UNHCR
    1. Better proposals – those that do well continue
    1. Improvements in Communications / Transportation
    1. "video from the jungle - management may not delegate because can "see" the problem and this may create its own problems; micromanagement?
    2. Security is better as far as "knowing"; but now workers are in areas they would not normally go.
    3. Risk may be accepted too readily
    4. C-130s more in air working in HA venue than a decade ago
    5. Transportation support companies
    6. Media changes
    1. Sound bites
    2. Less research
    3. Less of the whole picture
    4. "Haves and have nots"
    1. Human rights
    1. hear more reported abuses
    2. no country can go against the world
    1. Internet
    2. Research
    1. No one funds long term research
    2. Tactical Science
    1. Phase criteria
    1. Must think past the acute phase
    2. What, when and who to hand over
    3. Owe "what was before and a hope to the future"
    4. Sustainability
    1. Areas to improve
    1. OCHA as a policy body
    2. Human rights
    3. Information sharing
    4. Link between emergency and development

IV. References

    1. Small Wars Manual: United States Marine Corps 1940, Sunflower University Press, Manhattan, KS.
    2. The UA Military / NGO Relationship in Humanitarian Interventions, Chris Seiple, Peacekeeping Institute, US Army War College, 1996.
    3. Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know, Ed. R. Gutman, K. Anderson, W.W. Norton and Co.Ltd., London.
    4. Manual on the Rights and Duties of Medical Personnel in Armed Conflicts, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, 1982.
    5. Conversations with Peter Leentjes, COL(R) Canada, John Otte, LTC (R) US, Jeff Lewis., COEDMHA.
Summary: lessons learned

References