In the recent decade, there has been an average of 388 natural disasters per year, costing US$156 billion in damages and 215 million victims. Asia is the most disaster-prone region in the world, with four of the top five countries most frequently hit by natural disasters coming from Asia; namely, China, Indonesia, Philippines, and India. Singapore, with its reputation as a financial, knowledge and logistics hub, is in a strong position to help advance the humanitarian cause.
ASIA - prone to natural disasters
COMPLEX HUMANITARIAN OPERATIONS
Disaster management typically follows a phased approach consisting of (1) preparedness, (2) response, and (3) recovery. Various participants are involved in the disaster management cycle. First are governmental disaster management agencies, which include local agencies such as fire departments, the police, the civil defense department, the local government, and the military. Second, we have non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Third, there are multilateral organizations such as the United Nations and its various units (e.g. UNICEF, WFP, WHO.) Other stakeholders in the humanitarian operations include the media, business enterprises, and the general public.
COORDINATION IS KEY.
With many players in the humanitarian operations system, effective coordination becomes key. Unfortunately, we are still lacking in this endeavor. For instance, in the 2015 Nepal earthquake, a row broke out between Nepal and some international agencies over the handling of aid. “Donors are sending relief materials without consulting us what we need” while donors that are frustrated by the delays and lack of coordination are circumventing the government and sending aid directly through non-governmental organizations.
WE HAVE 7 CURRENT PROJECTS.
We have identified seven research projects as follows:
- Project 1: Disaster Fundraising
- Project 2: Mapping and Analysis of HADR Landscape
- Project 3: Knowledge Management for Humanitarian Continuity
- Project 4: Blood Donation Management
- Project 5: Material Convergence
- Project 6: Last-Mile Problem
- Project 7: Recovery Fund Allocation
WE AIM TO UNDERSTAND AND TO HELP.
The humanitarian system is a collection of stakeholders sharing a common goal, albeit with different performance measures and incentives. Our research projects will investigate key issues and design effective mechanisms to achieve coordination of organizations, individual donors, information, material, and financial resources. More specifically, Project 1 will coordinate donors and financial resources, while Projects 2 and 3 will coordinate organizations and information. Projects 4 and 5 are concerned with coordination of donors and material, while Projects 6 and 7 with coordination of organizations and financial resources.
The aim of our program is to investigate various inter-agency issues existing in the various phases of the humanitarian system.
Most of the operations and logistics literature in this area focus on optimizing the allocation of resources under a centralized system with central authority to implement the optimal solutions. We believe that there is a pressing need to study and to design mechanisms that can help coordinate parts of the humanitarian system, which consist mostly of independent units co-existing without a centralized chain of command.