Disaster Donations: A Mixture of Blessings and Problems

Disaster donations: a mixture of blessing and problems

Globally, the number of disasters has grown significantly. This has resulted to substantial economic damage. In response to these disasters, worldwide humanitarian aid has increased. A recent report by Global Humanitarian Assistance indicates that worldwide humanitarian aid has doubled compared to ten years ago. In most cases, donations are in the form of cash grants, but a large portion of the donations is "in-kind," in terms of goods, such as food, tents, blankets, medicine, or services such as volunteering (Larson, Metzger and Cahn, 2006). A modern report from the U.N has reported that almost 17% of all donations are "in-kind."

A large proportion of humanitarian aid operations involve logistics and humanitarian organizations face adverse challenges in this sector. Ever since the 2004 Asian Tsunami disaster, many studies have addressed challenges in humanitarian logistics and...
[ View Full Essay]