Natural disasters pose a serious threat to the well-being of affected individuals, households, communities, and countries. Those who suffer and survive such events, particularly major events, cannot cope without emergency assistance from external sources , both within and beyond the national boundary. Similarly, the local governments of affected communities depend on these sources because they cannot provide food, medicine, and other basic necessities for those who survived the disasters without generous help from such sources. Outside sources include people, governments, and a multiplicity of organizations not only from unaffected areas of the country, but also from many entities from foreign countries. At the country level, the government of the affected country frequently relies on foreign sources for emergency assistance to tackle challenges in the aftermath of a major natural disaster. This is particularly true for the developing countries . Thus, the availability of foreign sources of funding, including in-kind, cash, and other help, is crucial to developing countries because governments of these countries are least likely to have the capacity and resources to successfully organize disaster relief.
Disaster relief is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “The provision of assistance during or immediately after a disaster to meet the life preservation and basic subsistence needs of those people affected. It can be of an immediate, short-term, or protracted duration” (WHO 2007, 31). According to New World Encyclopedia (2017), “Disaster relief is the monies or services made available to individuals and communities that have experienced losses due to disasters such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, drought, tornadoes, and riots.” Both are simple definitions that do not encompass the broad spectrum of activities , processes, and mechanisms, and many actors , agencies , and stakeholders involved in collecting, sorting, transporting, storing, and disbursing emergency assistance to survivors of extreme events.
However, because so many humanitarian actors and other stakeholders become involved, disaster relief operations as a whole are quite complex. Without clear mandates, roles, objectives, coordination , and accurate information, such operations are at risk. According to Barbarosoglu et al. (2002, 118), the core focus of disaster relief operations is to “design the transportation of first aid material, food, equipment, and rescue personnel from supply points to a large number of destination nodes geographically scattered over the disaster region and the evacuation and transfer of people affected by the disaster to the health care centers safely and very rapidly.”
In this book, the terms emergency relief , emergency assistance , emergency aid , disaster relief , disaster relief operation, disaster aid, humanitarian assistance , and humanitarian aid are used interchangeably. Although some authors (e.g., Margesson 2005) include search and rescue, and treatment of injured survivals as parts of relief operations , here emphasis will be on the collection, transportation, store, and delivery of relief goods to the victims of natural and man-made disasters .
Disaster assistance should provide rapid relief from humanitarian hardship after a natural disaster. Obviously, the more severe the disaster, the more aid must flow to counter its effects. Humanitarian aid includes all actions designed to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain and protect human dignity during and after both man-made crises and natural disasters , as well as to prevent and strengthen preparedness for their occurrence. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Vodafone Foundation (2011) define humanitarian aid as “[a]n intervention to help people who are victims of a natural disaster or conflict meet their basic needs and rights.” According to the guiding principles stated in the U.N. resolution A/RES/46/182, “[h]umanitarian assistance must be provided in accordance with the principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality ” (U.N. 1991). This means that different actors taking part in a disaster relief operation must comply with these three principles. Like the U.N. resolution, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement states seven fundamental principles: humanity , impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service , unity , and universality (IFRC 2013).
In essence, all humanitarian actions should be guided by the U.N. stated humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, and neutrality. Humanity means the centrality of saving human lives and alleviating suffering wherever it is found. Impartiality means implementation of actions based solely on need, without any form of discrimination (as to nationality, race, religion, beliefs, class, or political opinions) between or within affected populations. In the context of neutrality, if there is any conflict or dispute, the humanitarian organization should not support one group over the other especially where aid is offered. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement’s principle of—independence means humanitarian objectives are autonomous, free of political, economic, military, or other objectives of any actor in areas where humanitarian action is being implemented (Good Humanitarian Donorship 2003; IFRC 2013). 1 Voluntary service means relief efforts must not prompted by desire for gain. The remaining two principles (unity and universality ) are applicable to the organization. Under unity, the organization must carry its relief operation throughout its territory, and universality indicates that all Red Cross Societies “have equal status and share equal responsibilities and duties in helping each other …” (IFRC 2013, 262).
It is worth mentioning at the outset that the focus of this book is on humanitarian relief primarily intended for sufferers of natural disasters , not victims of “complex” or man-made emergencies. Complex emergencies are those humanitarian crises that occur in a country, region, or society where internal or external conflict has caused total or considerable breakdown of authority. These crises require an international response that goes beyond the mandate or capacity of any single agency and/or the ongoing U.N. country program...