“Who will lead this?” you ask? Well, how about the local communities?? Your example at the end illustrates the strength of LOCAL capacity to meet needs. For a global platform for humanitarian aid to be truly effective, it needs to be intentionally, directly and proactively building ON and FROM local capacity. If this doesn’t happen first, local capacities will be ignored and undervalued by outside aid efforts, at best (or be noted peripherally, almost as afterthoughts), and at worst local capacity will be trampled on and even undermined by well meaning outsiders. The critical question to figure out is how to coordinate humanitarian aid with impacted communities AT THE CENTER - in a way that recognizes, serves, builds from, and strengthens local response capacity. Our mental models persist in framing impacted communities as ‘victims’ only, and therefore on the receiving end of aid. This frames them as outside of and separate from the system of humanitarian aid. But impacted populations are also, and perhaps most importantly, the lead providers of aid, rebuilding, and individual and community healing more generally. So - can a ‘broader platform for collaborative innovation and resource management’ actually be broad enough to create an enhanced space for local leadership—AT THE CENTER?
This post is fantastic—it complements Samira’s article perfectly and emphasizes many of the local capacity strengths that were hot topics of conversation at the Naval Postgraduate School Course that I attended with US-AID instructors/facilitators and Navy/Marine Corps Officers.
I have been working in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief for over fifteen years and I appreciate both you and Samira’s pragmatic approach to a topic that often is prone to emotion because of the natural compassion to ease suffering—without the same emphasis on longer-term local sustainability.
Samira’s article shows some great examples of what world-class cooperation looks like in Nepal on the ground right now.
I am fond of saying that we need “Soft Hearts, but Hard Skills”
She addressed this very clearly with the teams of data analysts, local professors and European fundraisers and also brings up the clear need for some of the “Soft Skills” of adaptability, flexibility, and coordination of talent to be successful during like relief efforts like Nepal.
I am planning to share this article (and your post, Libby!) with my Aviation Logistics Marines to emphasize to them the importance of military airlift when natural disasters and security concerns make traditional supply chain unable to help—as well as the limitations and constraints within the current construct.
The Marine Corps is often viewed as rigid from the outside, but I have seen incredible flexibility in deferring to local expertise in past Humanitarian Assistance / Disaster Relief operations that mirror the type of collective cooperation discussed here.
I agree with Samira that as long as we remember the goal of relief and reconstruction, we can facilitate better partnerships!
More needs to be done in the form of Humanitarian Logistics as UNHCR send out their fleet of vehicles from their field offices and do not keep an account of how many vehicle they have or are being used . This is due to brake downs and not having enough spare parts. Surely there must be away of managing a fleet of vehicles as a Private Humanitarian partnership. More coordination is needed between the Private and Public Sectors to try and work together for a more efficient supply chain.
COMMENTS
BY Libby Hoffman
ON May 21, 2015 11:39 AM
“Who will lead this?” you ask? Well, how about the local communities?? Your example at the end illustrates the strength of LOCAL capacity to meet needs. For a global platform for humanitarian aid to be truly effective, it needs to be intentionally, directly and proactively building ON and FROM local capacity. If this doesn’t happen first, local capacities will be ignored and undervalued by outside aid efforts, at best (or be noted peripherally, almost as afterthoughts), and at worst local capacity will be trampled on and even undermined by well meaning outsiders. The critical question to figure out is how to coordinate humanitarian aid with impacted communities AT THE CENTER - in a way that recognizes, serves, builds from, and strengthens local response capacity. Our mental models persist in framing impacted communities as ‘victims’ only, and therefore on the receiving end of aid. This frames them as outside of and separate from the system of humanitarian aid. But impacted populations are also, and perhaps most importantly, the lead providers of aid, rebuilding, and individual and community healing more generally. So - can a ‘broader platform for collaborative innovation and resource management’ actually be broad enough to create an enhanced space for local leadership—AT THE CENTER?
BY Jack Tim
ON May 21, 2015 10:48 PM
this is an awesome post
BY Aaron J. Brooks
ON May 23, 2015 11:53 AM
Libby,
This post is fantastic—it complements Samira’s article perfectly and emphasizes many of the local capacity strengths that were hot topics of conversation at the Naval Postgraduate School Course that I attended with US-AID instructors/facilitators and Navy/Marine Corps Officers.
I have been working in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief for over fifteen years and I appreciate both you and Samira’s pragmatic approach to a topic that often is prone to emotion because of the natural compassion to ease suffering—without the same emphasis on longer-term local sustainability.
Samira’s article shows some great examples of what world-class cooperation looks like in Nepal on the ground right now.
I am fond of saying that we need “Soft Hearts, but Hard Skills”
She addressed this very clearly with the teams of data analysts, local professors and European fundraisers and also brings up the clear need for some of the “Soft Skills” of adaptability, flexibility, and coordination of talent to be successful during like relief efforts like Nepal.
I am planning to share this article (and your post, Libby!) with my Aviation Logistics Marines to emphasize to them the importance of military airlift when natural disasters and security concerns make traditional supply chain unable to help—as well as the limitations and constraints within the current construct.
The Marine Corps is often viewed as rigid from the outside, but I have seen incredible flexibility in deferring to local expertise in past Humanitarian Assistance / Disaster Relief operations that mirror the type of collective cooperation discussed here.
I agree with Samira that as long as we remember the goal of relief and reconstruction, we can facilitate better partnerships!
BY Rosa Manson
ON March 1, 2018 04:13 AM
More needs to be done in the form of Humanitarian Logistics as UNHCR send out their fleet of vehicles from their field offices and do not keep an account of how many vehicle they have or are being used . This is due to brake downs and not having enough spare parts. Surely there must be away of managing a fleet of vehicles as a Private Humanitarian partnership. More coordination is needed between the Private and Public Sectors to try and work together for a more efficient supply chain.