Responses to complex humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters: An analytical comparison

Abstract

This article analytically compares complex humanitarian emergencies with natural disasters, concentrating on disaster responses and interference with society. There are some important analytical differences between the responses to these two types of disaster, like overlapping and interactions, persistence and duration, access and timing, assistance involvement and intervention, physical and societal recovery, and others. However, the fundamental difference between natural and politically induced disasters is the way institutions are affected. In natural disasters, there can be some significant interference with society and therefore institutional change arising from both the impact effects and the responses, but this is infrequent, mostly incidental and not normally widespread or long-term. In complex emergencies, most aspects of the impact and effects have deliberate institutional aims and overtones. Likewise, the response to this type of calamity is also bound to cause significant interference with society, which may be intense, long-term and mostly deliberate.