Coordination in humanitarian relief chains: Practices, challenges and opportunities

There is a growing recognition of the critical role information management can play in shaping effective humanitarian response, coordination and decision-making. Quality information, reaching more humanitarian actors, will result in better coordination and better decision-making, thus improving the response to beneficiaries as well as accountability to donors. The humanitarian response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake marked a watershed moment for humanitarian information management. Yet the fragmented nature of the response and the use of hierarchical models of information management, along with other factors, have led some observers to label the Haiti response a failure. Using an analytical framework often found in humanitarian emergencies, this study analyses challenges to information flow in the Haiti case and the implications for effective humanitarian response. It concludes by offering possible paths for overcoming such challenges, and for restoring the value and utility of humanitarian information management and exchange in humanitarian relief settings.

https://works.bepress.com/nezih_altay/23/download/

Challenges in humanitarian information management and exchange: evidence from Haiti.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify chain coordinators and to explore their roles. The paper also highlights certain advantages of coordination, specific competencies of the coordinators, and challenges in the coordination.Design/methodology/approach – This is a case study research. The data were collected through interviews, observations, and personal experiences of working as a logistics manager and a project manager in the 2005 South Asian earthquake.Findings – The coordinated organizations manage a number of complex relationships to respond to the disasters effectively and efficiently. An umbrella organization plays a chain coordinator role in horizontal coordination. The umbrella organization leads, directs, and makes major decisions. A country director/programme manager acts as a strategic coordinator in vertical coordination. However, logistics managers, procurement managers and project managers (operations coordinators) also handle coordination activities. The coordinators’ tangible...

Coordination in humanitarian relief chains: chain coordinators

https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/esa/Papers_and_documents/WP_13-04_Lentz_Barrett.pdf

The Economics and Nutritional Impacts of Food Assistance Policies and Programs

The longstanding “cash versus food” debate has received renewed attention in both research and practice. This paper reviews key issues shaping the debate and presents new evidence from randomized and quasi-experimental evaluations that deliberately compare cash and in-kind food transfers in ten developing counties. Findings show that relative effectiveness cannot be generalized: although some differences emerge in terms of food consumption and dietary diversity, average impacts tend to depend on context, specific objectives, their measurement, and program design. Costs for cash transfers and vouchers tend to be significantly lower relative to in-kind food. Yet the consistency and robustness of methods for efficiency analyses varies greatly.

Revisiting the “Cash versus Food” Debate: New Evidence for an Old Puzzle?

1. Uniting on Food Assistance: The Case for Transatlantic Cooperation 2. The Challenging Path to a Global Food Assistance Architecture 3. Food Assistance Policy and Institutions in the United States and European Union 4. Gathering and Analyzing Information for Food Assistance 5. Expanding the Food Assistance Toolbox 6. Quality and Safety of Food Assistance 7. Moving Food Assistance Forward

Andrea Binder

Papers

Uniting on food assistance : the case for transatlantic cooperation

Cluster Approach Evaluation 2