Survivor needs or logistical convenience? Factors shaping decisions to deliver relief to earthquake-affected communities, Pakistan 2005-06

Bibliographic Data

ID3127444
AuthorsAldo Benini (Independent Sector), Charles Conley, Brody Dittemore (National Geographic Society), Zachary Waksman
Year2009
Volume33
Issue1
Pages110-131
Publication date2009-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDisasters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0361-3666 • E-ISSN: 1467-7717
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-7717.2008.01065.x
PMID18513312
OpenAlexW1998428028
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited11

In Bureaucratizing the Good Samaritan, Waters (2001) argues that bureaucratic rationality distracts humanitarian agencies from the needs of the people they are supposed to assist, in favour of other values that their institutional frameworks dictate. We test his claim by investigating the response to the Pakistan 2005 earthquake. One of us (Dittemore) worked with the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre in the theatre, managing a relief cargo shipment database. The response, known as 'Operation Winter Race', was hampered by extreme logistical challenges, but ultimately succeeded in averting a second disaster resulting from cold and starvation. We use statistical models to probe whether survivor needs significantly guided decisions to deliver relief to affected communities. Needs assessments remained incomplete and incoherent. We measure needs through proxy indicators and integrate them, on a Geographic Information System (GIS) platform, with logistics and relief delivery data. We find that, despite strong logistics effects, needs orientations were significant. However, the strength of decision factors varies between commodity types (food versus clothing and shelter versus reconstruction materials) as well as over the different phases of the response. This study confirms Thomas's observation that logistics databases are rich 'repositories of data that can be analyzed to provide post-event learning' (Thomas, 2003, p. 4). This article is an invitation for others to engage in creative humanitarian data management

Bureaucracy · Business · Clothing · Disaster response · Economics · Emergency management · Medical emergency · Operations management · Operations research · Political science · Proxy (statistics · Relief Work · Computer Science · Disaster Management and Resilience · Disaster Response and Management · Engineering · Facility Location and Emergency Management · Law · Medicine

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access