Logistics Constraints As Main Obstacle To Provide Emergency Medical Assistance
PROJECT REFERENCE - R001/December 2014
GENERAL OBJECTIVES
The outcome of the project should ultimately help the humanitarian community to provide a more appropriate, effective and safer humanitarian assistance in acute emergency situation through an advanced logistics support adapted to medical programs.
ABSTRACT
Over the past years, repeated criticisms have been expressed regarding the failures from the international humanitarian community to provide an effective assistance in acute emergency situations. Some international organisations have recently point out the tardiness and the lack of impact of the UN agencies and INGOs response to displaced populations between 2012 and 2013. Although, most of the criticism have been raised in the aftermath of large-scale natural hazard (tsunami, Indian Ocean – earthquake Haiti), there is today a more specific concern regarding of a systematic deficit to effectively address medical needs during the recent humanitarian crises generated either by armed conflicts (e.g. Syria, CAR, South-Sudan) or large-scale epidemics (e.g. Ebola outbreak, Western Africa).
This deficit to address most accurate medical needs has led to devastating consequences on the affected population and victims of the conflicts, but also put at high risk the few international teams who struggled to provide healthcare assistance in these fields. The security concern is even more accurate when it comes to operate in remote places, where access to the affected population is more difficult due to higher logistics constraints. Without powerful and adapted logistics, it is assumed today most of the international aid agencies are opting for a non-medical assistance (NFI, food, shelter, etc.) or/and sub-contracting some more hands-on local organizations when it comes to healthcare. When logistics constraints are creating minor impediments – as it was the case during the response to the Typhoon Hayian in Philippines last year - larger and more effective humanitarian deployments have been reported.
A research project has been requested by a multi-disciplinary group in order to analyze, document and confirm if the above described dis-engagement of the INGOs from medical first-aid is indeed a consecutive effect of a lack of logistics adapted to healthcare programs (also called medical logistics) or is not. If this assumption is confirmed, the research should also i) highlight the main impediments INGOs are facing to provide appropriate medical logistics support, ii) provide related recommendations in order to guide the humanitarian community on areas of improvements and further investments related to medical logistics that should be considered in the future. Read more
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