A pragmatic approach to operationalize impartiality: A case study of transition shelter reconstruction in the context of Nepal earthquake 2015

Abstract

The principle of impartiality gains the highest priority in humanitarian action. However, the skewed distribution of humanitarian aid, uncoordinated needs assessment, the plurality of interpretations of impartiality, the neglect of the ‘most in need’ and the trade-off between self-determination and furthering parochialism are the key challenges in realizing impartiality. Thus, the objective of the paper is to propose an operationally feasible approach to address the manifest injustice, with regard to the marginalization of the ‘most in need’ in the post disaster humanitarian context. The paper draws from theories of justice, to develop the approach that addresses the challenges in operationalizing impartiality, and illustrates the same in targeting transitional shelter reconstruction, using the case study of Nepal Earthquake 2015. The paper uses a pragmatic sequential mixed method approach comprising of five steps. Qualitative methods are used to explore contextual quantitative indicators and indices to target the ‘worst off’ and for the social evaluation of the approach. The quantitative multi-stage, multi-criterion-based decision-making process is adapted to integrate the priority of multiple stakeholders within the data aggregation process to arrive at the index, using which targeting is performed. The theory driven approach that uses AHP at higher levels of aggregation is evaluated against other approaches such as Pareto front and Equal Weight. Confusion Matrices, ROC curve and the decomposition of the probability of type 2 error, highlight the relative advantage of the approach over other approaches. The paper concludes with the discussion of the theoretical, methodological and practical contributions.