Jim Lanning
Journal of International Peace Operations
Volume 7, Number 2 – September-October, 2011
When disaster strikes, the efficient delivery of food and other emergency supplies can save lives.
IN any corporate or political campaign, logistics can be central to success. This is certainly true for humanitarian response and emergency relief operations as well. The growing capacity of international organizations to quickly provide relief and other stabilization goods and services is truly impressive. We take it for granted that tons of food, clothing, temporary shelter and other humanitarian support commodities can be quickly provided after a natural or man-made disaster virtually anywhere in the world. For instance, my organization has an ability to send an assessment team within hours after a disaster strikes. Once a relief assessment is made, we immediately contact our partners to obtain the necessary water, sanitation, food, and medical or shelter goods to assist disaster victims. At the same time, we contact our donors to obtain the funds necessary to ship and distribute the goods. Commodities are usually in peoples’ hands within days.
The inability to act this rapidly – such as after Hurricane Katrina struck the U.S. Gulf Coast – is regarded as a major failure of both the public and private sectors. Of course the scale of the Katrina disaster was unprecedented and out of that disaster came many changes to how the U.S. approaches disaster response domestically.
Unfortunately, for most of history and in many parts of the developing world, suffering through disaster and violence was a given, part of the human condition. State and non-state actors had neither the capacity nor, most often, the will to help vulnerable people suffering from “an act of God.” It is a notable advance in organizational development that it is now understood that vulnerable people should receive assistance to help them and their communities to recover.
