Global Intervention in Humanitarian Disaster: A critical review.

Abstract

This study focused on global intervention in humanitarian disasters. Records reveal that both man-made and natural disasters are rife in the world today. Disasters like wars, flood, famine, fire, hurricanes, tsunamis, landslides, typhoons, cyclones, and plane crashes etc., are common occurrences in human society. Since these disasters tend to strip most of the victims of the wherewithal of survival, they usually need the assistance of other individuals or institutions to survive. The help that is available is usually based on the degree of severity of the disaster, who the victims are, the region of the disaster and the capacity for response of stakeholders in the humanitarian industry. It should also be noted that aid occurs at many levels which spans local and international organisations as well as governmental agencies. This study is limited to exploring the intervention initiative of humanitarian organisations to disasters from the angle of relevant empirical literature. Humanitarian actors’ interest, resources, organisational structure, and functions affect their behaviour and ability to cooperate with other actors in a complex emergency. Humanitarian actors may act in concert or in contention with one another, or somewhere in between. Conflict of interest, competition for resources, incompatible organisational structures and cultures and overlapping functions are the challenges that the actors themselves bring to humanitarian operations.