Assessing the Value of Localisation and New Actors Using Network Approach: Evidence from Shelter Clusters in ASEAN

Abstract

AbstractThe rise of ‘new, emerging, and non-traditional’ actors in disaster management and humanitarian actions has been well-recognised, such as those from the private sector, diaspora groups, faith-based organisations, regional organisations, and local civil society. In a networked world of humanitarian operations in Southeast Asia, this has been well-observed in the episode of the Typhoon Haiyan 2013, as well as the recent Central Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami. However, few studies have seriously argued about the significance of humanitarian actions by those actors. Further, in the context of Southeast Asia, has the potential of humanitarian actions capacity of these actors been formally acknowledged and operationally used within the disaster management tools and mechanisms of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)? The chapter aims to empirically demonstrate and highlight the significance and value of humanitarian actions by local (ASEAN-born civil society organisations) and non-traditional humanitarian actors (vis-à-vis an overall inter-organisational network of humanitarian actors) in those two catastrophic disasters in ASEAN. Empirical evidence was used from the shelter cluster/sector in those two catastrophic disasters, during both emergency response and early recovery. A set of recommendations is provided at the end of the chapter, for strengthening the connectivity of ASEAN-born civil society, private sector, and other ‘new’ and emerging humanitarian actors to the ASEAN disaster management tools and mechanisms, as stipulated under the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster and Emergency Response (AADMER), its work programmes, and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint.KeywordsInter-organisational networkValuationASEANRegional disaster and emergency responseLocalisationHumanitarian assistance coverage