The Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CFE-DMHA): An Assessment of Roles and Missions

Abstract

Abstract : In recognition of the important role that the U.S. military has to play in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, congressional legislation established the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CFE-DMHA) in Honolulu in 1994 to provide and facilitate education, training, and research in civil-military operations in this field. This report examines CFE-DMHAs history and activities to help determine how the missions assigned to it can best be performed to meet the challenges facing the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in this domain. The report finds that a center focused on disaster management and humanitarian assistance (DMHA) fulfills important needs that will only grow in the future. After identifying some key concerns with the centers functioning, including a fundamental misalignment of mission and resources that the current director is seeking to rectify, the report concludes that the need for a DoD center focused on DMHA remains, but the center should focus, for now, on a subset of activities and missions. The report finds that while the Asia-Pacific represents a priority area for DMHA, because of the prevalence of disasters(about 45 percent of the global total) in that region, there is also a need for additional training, engagement, research, and information related to DMHA civil-military coordination in other regions, which a globally oriented center could provide and that the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) should guide. Based on these conclusions, and after reviewing a number of courses of action, the report concludes that aligning CFE-DMHA with an existing globally oriented organization under OSD would best position the center to serve these purposes.