Turning the humanitarian system on its head-opinion

Saving lives and livelihoods by strengthening local capacity and shifting leadership to local actors, say Tarar. Gingerich and Marck J. Cohen from Oxfam America in this Sudan Vision Opinion piece.

"The global humanitarian system is overstretched, investing inadequately in risk reduction and prevention, and providing assistance that is often insufficient, inappropriate, and late".

According to the authors, the Philippine government learned from its experience with Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan in November 2013, when Typhoon Ruby/Hagupit was approaching in 2014. Working with civil society, it undertook preparedness measures and evacuated nearly 1 million people from the riskiest areas. These measures are credited with drastically decreasing the scale of deaths and damage resulting from the storm.

"When responses are internationally led, on the other hand, local actors do not have the same opportunities to learn, and the international system struggles to institutionalize applicable lessons for the next international response, as we have seen in evaluations from the earthquake in Haiti and the 2004 tsunami" added Gingerich and Cohen.