Humanitarian Aid Agencies Research Articles

‘Humanitarianized’ Development? Anti‐trafficking Reconfigured

ABSTRACTOver the past three decades humanitarianism has broadened considerably in scope. Humanitarian aid agencies have increasingly moved beyond a traditionally narrow concern with immediate relief aid to engage the wider implications of their work. Humanitarian arguments have also become central to policy legitimation in a range of contexts outside the humanitarian aid sector. By contrast, this article, based on research into anti‐trafficking programmes in the Mekong region of Southeast Asia, considers a case where a particular humanitarian discourse has in fact narrowed. Anti‐trafficking, once informed by development discourses of poverty reduction and long‐term well‐being of populations, has become increasingly shaped by a humanitarian emergency logic of exceptionalism. Long‐term development modalities have contracted into a zeal for the immediateness of ‘rescues’ and saving lives. By drawing attention to how development and humanitarian discourses intersect in anti‐trafficking interventions, this article explores how such shifts in legitimization and mobilization have taken place, in turn transforming actors and practices. The article will suggest that it is the different temporal registers of the two discourses — development and humanitarianism — that help account for this shift from the former to the latter.

In harm's way: Climate security vulnerability in Asia

Abstract Asian countries have among the highest numbers of people exposed to the impacts of climate-related hazards and, thus, at greatest risk of mass death. Floods, droughts, and storms have always tested civilian governments and international humanitarian aid agencies. However, climate change threatens to make the problem worse by increasing the intensity and possibly the frequency of climate-related hazards. Humanitarian emergencies potentially upend and reverse progress on development priorities, making improved spatial awareness of likely hot spots a priority for adaptation and preparedness. This article presents the findings of the effort to map sub-national “climate security vulnerability” in 11 countries in South and Southeast Asia. Climate security vulnerability is defined as areas where large numbers of people are at risk of death due to exposure to climate-related hazards and the follow-on consequences of exposure, including but not limited to conflict. The Asian Climate Security Vulnerability Model Version 1 (ACSV V1) found that Bangladesh, parts of southern and western Myanmar (the Ayeyarwady region and Rakhine state), and parts of southern and northwest Pakistan (Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces) were the most vulnerable from a climate security perspective. In terms of absolute numbers, the largest numbers of people who are exposed to climate hazards are in India followed by Bangladesh. Model results are compared with a geo-referenced version of the EM-DAT Disaster Database and by creating alternative model specifications informed by a survey of 18 regional experts.

Sanctions Hurt but Are Not the Main Impediment to Humanitarian Operations in North Korea

Sanctions Hurt but Are Not the Main Impediment to Humanitarian Operations in North Korea Roberta Cohen (bio) For more than two decades, humanitarian agencies have tried to address the chronic hunger and malnutrition of more than 40% of North Korea's 25 million people. Since the great famine of the 1990s, when humanitarian organizations were first invited into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), they have come up against a series of obstacles put in their way by the government, undermining the effectiveness of aid. Although the sanctions imposed in 2006 and strengthened in 2016 and 2017 unquestionably have added to the difficulty of delivering humanitarian aid, the main impediment remains the government of North Korea itself. This essay will examine how the DPRK, while allowing humanitarian aid agencies access to its territory, has often restricted their operations and effectively prevented them from reaching many of the most in need, as well as how international sanctions have added to those difficulties. As a result, without a change in North Korea's policies and practices, the lifting of sanctions would not alter the fundamental problems faced by humanitarian actors in the country. The Challenge of Bringing Aid to North Korea In 2014 the report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK concluded that "20 years after humanitarian agencies began their work in the DPRK, humanitarian workers still face unacceptable constraints impeding their access to populations in dire need." The report found that the DPRK has "imposed movement and contact restrictions on humanitarian actors that unduly impede their access"; "deliberately failed to provide aid organizations with access to reliable data, which, if provided, would have greatly enhanced the effectiveness of the humanitarian response and saved many lives"; and continually obstructed effective monitoring of [End Page 35] humanitarian assistance,1 presumably to hide the diversion of some of the aid to the military, elite, or other favored groups as well as to markets. In response, aid agencies have devised special measures to try to ensure that food reaches those for whom it is intended, including by weighing children's arms, omitting rice from donations because corn gruel and other mixed foods are not favored by the military and elite, and supplying medicines "that can only be used for their intended purpose."2 At times they have developed successful random monitoring systems.3 Despite notable progress, in 2017 UN secretary-general António Guterres continued to highlight the "significant constraints" imposed by North Korea on aid agencies' access to the beneficiaries.4 In 2016, then UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon called on North Korea to grant UN agencies "unconditional access" to reliable and accurate data to ensure that aid programs "can effectively target and reach the most vulnerable."5 Yet when the World Food Programme's executive director visited North Korea in 2018, he noted that "access has still been very limited."6 The UN resident coordinator in Pyongyang aptly put it: "National authorities are reluctant to share data beyond the bare minimum and agencies are normally only allowed access to limited information that is strictly related to their operations."7 In this tightly controlled political climate, international humanitarian staff often have to make compromises. Some point out privately that it is unrealistic to try to uphold humanitarian standards in an environment as difficult as North Korea's. They try hard to come up with ways to make their aid sustainable for the North Korean people, but their plans are not always accepted. They may propose extensive medical treatment for some diseases only to have officials curtail the aid and increase the number of people being treated. Where the aid ends up is also not always clear. Supplies brought to one hospital may end up being sent elsewhere without explanation. [End Page 36] According to the UN Commission of Inquiry report, humanitarian staff expressed "strong doubts that the people and children presented to them were those most in need."8 Gaining access is an ongoing issue. In 2016, during Typhoon Lionrock, for example, UN agencies were told they could visit only three of the flooded areas.9 And they were not offered entry—nor did they...

Analysing the interaction of factors for resilient humanitarian supply chain

Emergencies and disasters place an exceptional demand on the managerial skills of the humanitarian aid community. Most of the developing countries lack in such kind of resilience and effective humanitarian supply chain. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify and analyse the factors to develop the resilience in the humanitarian supply chain. Based on the literature review, total 12 factors related to resilient humanitarian supply chain have been identified. Some of these factors are process oriented and some are result oriented. Interpretive structural modelling with Fuzzy MICMAC analysis is used to develop structural relationships among these factors and to find the driving and the dependence power of these factors. Government support, strategy and capacity planning; and continuous assessment of project progress have emerged as the major drivers for the development of resilient humanitarian supply chain. By managing these driving factors, humanitarian aid programme can be made resilient and agile. The findings will be useful for the humanitarian aid agencies to develop effective and sustainable aid relief programme.

Risk‐Aware or Risk‐Averse? Challenges in Implementing Security Risk Management Within Humanitarian NGOs

AbstractHumanitarian aid agencies that deliver assistance in complex emergencies increasingly face violent incidents that not only put the humanitarians’ lives at risk but also jeopardize the delivery of life‐saving aid, thus affecting those parts of populations in need that are already the most vulnerable. In response, numerous humanitarian aid agencies have introduced professional security risk management systems. However, these systems are not implemented to the full extent in every humanitarian organization. I conducted 29 interviews with and a survey among 54 representatives from European and U.S. humanitarian not‐for‐profit non‐governmental organizations to study the implementation of security risk management systems within aid agencies. Combining an organizational perspective with findings from the International Relations literature on norms allows to understand security risk management in terms of ideas and values, which in turn makes it possible to study how security risk management systems are perceived and appropriated within the organizations in order to identify internal organizational barriers to the implementation of relevant policies, procedures, and structures as well as the different ways in which these concerns are addressed by those who are responsible for the implementation of security risk management.

Towards the establishment of cash waqf microfinance fund for refugees

Purpose This paper aims to propose cash waqf (endowment) to develop a conceptual model that can be utilised to extend microfinance for refugees. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative method is used in this research. An extensive review of the literature has been conducted. Latest literature on refugees, microfinance has been critically examined beside the current cash waqf models. Findings Empirical studies have shown that many refugees are equipped with marketable skills and talents that can be utilised to improve their socio-economic situations. The proposed model – cash waqf refugee microfinance fund (CWRMF) – is structured to extend microfinance to potential refugee micro entrepreneurs. To address the lack of collateral, which is a requirement to gain any microfinance, CWRMF has been incorporated with a takaful unit (cooperation) by which refugees may guarantee each other. Additionally, the model has also been structured to address the challenge of sustainability of the institution that would provide microfinance. Hence, a reserve fund has also been integrated into the model. Practical implications CWRMF represents a potential model to be implemented by humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and aid agencies to support livelihood of refugees in particular for Muslim refugees. Positive outcome is expected from the implementation of this model. This is because of the various advantages of microfinance programs not only on refugees but also on concerned NGOs, host populations and donor parties. Additionally, this paper is a set of primarily thoughts aims to open the door wider for more researchers to explore the potential of cash waqf as one of the instruments to finance refugee microenterprises and business activities. Originality/value Recently cash waqf has been into several models for socio-economic development and poverty alleviation. This paper is proposing cash waqf as a source for a microfinance fund that can contribute in the improvement of socio-economic situations of millions of refugees around the world.

Using systems thinking to improve natural resource governance and strengthen weak networks

AbstractThis paper reports on the decision‐making processes in international conservation as found in two southern African case studies, the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area, and the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area. Using systems thinking to approach the model of cross‐border natural resource governance and management provided insights at the landscape scale, particularly regarding the absence of a physical institution that can be evaluated and consequently improved. The overall objective of the research project was to consult with all layers of decision and policy makers involved in order to synthesize the current state of knowledge, identify the range of potential incremental effects of management responses on natural and human systems, and determine the range of values that drive decision‐making processes. The methodology involved analyses of semi‐structured interviews with stakeholders involved in the TFCAs, as well as relevant policies and treaty documents. The findings in the governance and decision making sphere were analysed using Capability Maturity Model theory and the NATO Network Enabling Capability Model theory. The main recommendations suggest improving involvement in decision‐making processes from the grass‐roots or community level, developing communities of practice between the different countries and core protected areas, prioritizing policy harmonization, and establishing a physical TFCA unit with dedicated, longer term staff instead of the current brief rotational cycle. The same Capability Maturity Model theory was then applied to a different type of network; the Regional Inter‐Agency Standing Committee, an informal network of humanitarian aid agencies and organizations. The latter research is an ongoing project, but preliminary results show that strengthening a central platform or institution can greatly improve the connections between entities within a system of systems, as well as the performance within each individual entity.

The ‘radical humanism’ of ‘Cap Anamur’ / ‘German Emergency Doctors’ in the 1980s: a turning point for the idea, practice and policy of humanitarian aid

Historiographies of humanitarian aid and aid agencies alike had suggested an ever-growing politicization and militarization following the end of the ‘cold war’. But already in the 1980s, the field of humanitarian aid underwent extensive changes; new aid agencies no longer relied on Christian ideas of charity or leftist internationalism, short-term aid gained new importance and an ever-growing disaster awareness can be observed. The relief organization ‘Cap Anamur ’/’ German Emergency Doctors’ (GED) was founded in 1979 with the purpose of saving the so-called ‘boat people’. Typical for its time, it ascribed to a pure and innate humanitarian impulse summarized under the term ‘radical humanism’. Using the example of GED the article sets out to scrutinise the policies of this new humanitarianism that can be summarized as ‘controlled demerging’. The article brings into focus humanitarian aid as such, its own logic deriving from a particular idea of humanitarianism, considering both site-specific practices and also specific policies that are not necessarily congruent with political or economic interests. It becomes clear that the basis for the new political meaning humanitarian aid gained from the 1990s onwards was already laid by the humanitarian-aid agencies themselves.

Faith-Based Charitable Giving and Its Impact on Notions of “Community”: The Case of American Muslim NGOs

With the current economic downturn, increased levels of unemployment, and poverty, the role of non-profits has come into spotlight. Considering that there are over 1.5 million NGOs in the U.S.A., and a proliferation of faith-based organizations (FBOs), their role in social capital, civic engagement cannot be discounted (Salamon, Sokolowski, and Anheier 2000). The role of FBOs has also been recognized as being important, and this became a part of mainstream discourse with the Charitable Choice provisions introduced by President Bill Clinton and consolidated under George W. Bush. While there is a lot of literature on Christian FBOs, there is very little written matter on American Muslim NGOs, or comparative research. American Muslim FBOs have emerged in the last 20 years, as important players in both domestic and international humanitarian aid movement. I will examine the case of Muslim faith-based giving to organizations to analyze how charitable giving towards them is influencing discourse about the American Muslim “community,” and how it is best to understand their work “relationally” rather than in opposition to other faith traditions (GhaneaBassiri 2010). While the narrative of giving among American Muslims seems simple and there is also very little literature on this issue, my preliminary research points towards a complicated landscape of giving, which combines both local giving at the mosque level and giving at the international level to the Ummah (community) or brotherhood, through transnational humanitarian aid agencies such as Islamic Relief. I argue that giving practices are creating new forms of “relational communities” in America. This notion of “relationality” can be applied in philanthropy, and is evident in the global humanitarian aid movement, as I demonstrate. I ask whether this is forming a new “moral geography” that is more pluralistic and broader than the one that we are familiar, especially in the American context. A closer examination of this phenomenon offers us insights into how a community is imagined and created. This paper seeks to contribute to the growing body of literature on FBOs, and also that on American philanthropy.

Civil-Military Engagement: An Empirical Account of Humanitarian Perceptions of Civil-Military Coordination During the Response to Typhoon Haiyan.

This study sought to identify how humanitarian actors in natural disasters coordinate (or communicate) with the military to identify the needs of disaster-affected populations, identify how coordination should be undertaken for the delivery of relief goods, perceive the effectiveness of such coordination, perceive the role that training played in preparation for coordinating with the military and the effectiveness of this training, and view the overall civil-military engagement and its implications for the independence of the humanitarian sector. A survey instrument focused on participant perceptions of the civil-military engagement in response to Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines was sent to country directors and agency leads who played a role in the response. Although the data supported anecdotal accounts that the coordination between civilian and military actors during the disaster relief efforts in Typhoon Haiyan worked well, they also revealed that fewer than half of the respondents were familiar with the Guidelines on the Use of Foreign Military and Civil Defence Assets in Disaster Relief (the "Oslo Guidelines") and only 12% of respondents thought that the Oslo Guidelines were used to develop organizational policy on humanitarian aid agency engagement with military actors. Humanitarians felt that international militaries and the Philippines Armed Forces played an important role in ensuring that aid reached people in need, particularly in the early days of the response. However, less than half of the respondents were familiar with the Oslo Guidelines.

Trauma Rules 2 Incorporating Military Trauma Rules

This short, but important, text provides a succinct and systematic approach to management of the seriously injured patient. It takes a novel approach, as stated in the first edition published in 1997. In the preface, the editors write: ‘Learning should be fun, and this book is designed to be fun to read’. The editors have most certainly succeeded in this ambition. The text is unusual in layout and style. The editors and authors make use of short and imperative sentences, perhaps exposing the military background of the principal authors! The editors and authors are highly experienced and are accepted experts in their field. This gives the work an authoritative edge. The 70 rules are presented in an engaging and easily readable style. An evidence base is presented for each rule, where such evidence exists. The new edition includes rules for managing military trauma - so appropriate in the current world climate. For example, rules 2 and 3 describe the unique pathophysiology and austerity associated with military injury and will better inform civilian colleagues managing terrorist injury at home or when they deploy with humanitarian aid agencies to conflict environments. The work is divided into sections laid out chronologically, covering the period before patient arrival, the general approach to the trauma patient, initial assessment and resuscitation, and concluding with rules covering investigation and definitive care. A common approach for each rule is used and each rule is numbered. The reason for the rule is succinctly described; there follows a list of exceptions, if any exist. Diagrams, tables and clinical photographs are used to reinforce rules where appropriate. The work is short and easy to read. The entire work could be read in full at one sitting but can be delved into piecemeal on a case-bycase basis. A very small bit of nitpicking: rule 54 states ‘a tension pneumothorax cannot be diagnosed on a chest X-ray’. Perhaps that should read ‘a tension pneumothorax should not be diagnosed on a chest X-ray – the diagnosis is clinical’. This book succeeds in its stated aims. It provides a useful book for the pocket of those working in emergency rooms or in the field setting of a war or natural disaster.

Microbuses and Mobile Homemaking in Exile: Sudanese Visiting Strategies in Cairo

Paying home visits to mark social events and maintain networks is an established cultural pattern in Arab countries. Northern Sudanese displaced in Cairo in the 1990s made significant efforts to continue visiting each other in their temporary homes, despite having to travel long distances to members of their widely scattered networks. The deterioration of the legal and political status of Sudanese living in Egypt during the 1990s contributed to longer-term uncertainty for those who sought safety and security in Cairo. In this article, I argue that this long-term uncertainty constitutes a protracted refugee situation, and that Sudanese visiting practices constituted a mobile homemaking strategy that actively contributed to the negotiation of a complex ethnic identity in their protracted exile. Ranging across space and connecting people through experiences and values of Sudanese “homeyness,” visiting during these fraught years connected individuals and networks into constellations that recreated familiar patterns of homemaking but also encouraged new meanings granted to homeland and belonging. Woven through the more familiar relationship between “home” and “away” were the policy positions about urban refugees taken by the Egyptian government, United Nations High Commission for Refugees, International Organization for Migration, and other humanitarian aid and resettlement agencies, which produced a state-centred view of “home” for Sudanese.

Assessing Trade‐offs among Multiple Objectives for Humanitarian Aid Delivery Using Expert Preferences

Humanitarian aid agencies deliver emergency supplies and services to people affected by disasters. Scholars and practitioners have developed modeling approaches to support aid delivery planning, but they have used objective functions with little validation as to the trade‐offs among the multiple goals of aid delivery. We develop a method to value the performance of aid delivery plans based on expert preferences over five key attributes: the amount of cargo delivered, the prioritization of aid by commodity type, the prioritization of aid by delivery location, the speed of delivery, and the operational cost. Through a conjoint analysis survey, we measure the preferences of 18 experienced humanitarian logisticians. The survey results quantify the importance of each attribute and enable the development of a piecewise linear utility function that can be used as an objective function in optimization models. The results show that the amount of cargo delivered is the most valued objective and cost the least important. In addition, experts prioritize more vulnerable communities and more critical commodities, but not to the exclusion of others. With these insights and the experts’ utility functions, better humanitarian objective functions can be developed to enable better aid delivery in emergency response.

Providing health services during a civil war: the experience of a garrison town in South Sudan

The impact of conflict, particularly conflict arising during civil wars, on the provision of healthcare is a subject that has not been widely considered in conflict-related research. Combatants often target health services to weaken or to defeat the enemy, while attempts to maintain or improve health systems also can comprise part of counter-insurgency 'hearts-and-minds' strategies. This paper describes the dynamics associated with the provision of health services in Malakal, an important garrison town in South Sudan, during the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005). Drawing on the concepts of opportunity hoarding and exploitation, it explores the social and political dynamics of service provision in and around the town during the war. These concepts provide a useful lens with which to understand better how health services are affected by conflict, while the empirical case study presented in the paper illustrates dynamics that may be repeated in other contexts. The concepts and case study set out in this paper should prove useful to healthcare providers working in conflict zones, including humanitarian aid agencies and their employees, increasing their understanding of the social and political dynamics that they are likely to face during future conflict-related complex emergencies.

War and famine, peace and light? The economic dynamics of conflict in Somalia 1993–2009

The literature on war economies argues that prolonged civil wars have an economic logic: certain groups may obtain material gains from committing acts of violence and hence resist peacebuilding efforts. Objective tests of these predictions have so far been limited, as corruption and conflict prevent the collection of reliable economic data on the ground. Remote sensing and Geographic Information Science techniques enable us to overcome these problems of terrestrial data collection. Electricity consumption manifested as night-time light emissions recorded in satellite images is proposed as a proxy for changes in disposable income in Somalia’s cities. The nightlight images provide striking illustrations of economic decline and recovery and clearly show the contrast between the stable regions of Northern Somalia and the chaos and anarchy of Southern Somalia. Based on geospatial analyses of settlement patterns in Somali cities, we argue that specific metrics of light output can be used to proxy for the incomes of different social groups. We use geo-coded conflict event data to analyze the economic impact of conflict on local light output and therefore incomes. We find a significant peace dividend for poorer households located at the margins of cities, which benefit both from local stability and more peaceful conditions in the country as a whole. By contrast, the central business districts are relatively well insulated from the effects of local conflict, and violence in Mogadishu has positive effects on light output from cities where humanitarian aid agencies are located. Future peace initiatives need to confront these economic incentives for continued conflict and state failure in Somalia.

From British to Humanitarian Colonization: The ‘EarlyRecovery’ Response in Myanmar after Nargis

The humanitarian response to the disaster caused by Cyclone Nargis that hit theAyeyarwady Delta region of Myanmar in 2008 is a pertinent example of a veryspecific phase in humanitarian response at the transition between emergency anddevelopment. The author shows that this phase, known as ‘earlyrecovery’, being built on the specific characteristics of the emergency(lack of time and lack of means and input) and oriented towards development, isone in which the humanitarian aid agency is relatively restricted to thehumanitarian sphere itself. As a result, the ideological discourse lengthilydenounced by the post-structuralist anthropology of development – as aset of Western values imposed on the ‘developing’ countries toassert a new form of dominion – is actually powerful and quasi-monolithicin shaping the consequences of humanitarian aid. While there is no‘arena’ for the ‘beneficiaries' to discuss theaid's agency, a ‘methodological populism’ approach reveals,on the one hand, the antagonisms between a humanitarian ideology conveyingconsiderations such as ‘horizontal’ communities versus‘hierarchical bonds’ and, on the other, the similarity of itssocioeconomic consequences on the Delta's society to those of the Britishcolonial period.

Cultural Theory and acceptance based security strategies for humanitarian aid workers

Humanitarian aid agencies have relied primarily on acceptance as their primary risk, or security, management strategy for well over a decade. Evidence suggests, however, that this strategy has become ineffective, as the number of targeted attacks against humanitarian aid workers has been steadily increasing over the past two decades. Despite the urgency of the situation, aid agencies have struggled to effectively implement new strategies and still rely primarily on acceptance as a mitigating strategy. This article examines the limitations of acceptance as practiced by humanitarian aid agencies as a strategy against targeted attacks and the challenges in adopting new strategies. The article uses Cultural Theory to explain these limitations and challenges and concludes with recommendations based on that theory for a new approach to security strategies that takes into account the social milieu of both aid workers and their potential attackers.

How can we protect children from abuse by carers working for charities, humanitarian aid agencies or faith-based organizations?

How can we protect children from abuse by carers working for charities, humanitarian aid agencies or faith-based organizations?

Stress, Mental Health, and Burnout in National Humanitarian Aid Workers in Gulu, Northern Uganda

This study examined the mental health of national humanitarian aid workers in northern Uganda and contextual and organizational factors predicting well-being. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 376 national staff working for 21 humanitarian aid agencies. Over 50% of workers experienced 5 or more categories of traumatic events. Although, in the absence of clinical interviews, no clinical diagnoses were able to be confirmed, 68%, 53%, and 26% of respondents reported symptom levels associated with high risk for depression, anxiety disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), respectively. Between one quarter and one half of respondents reported symptom levels associated with high risk regarding measured dimensions of burnout. Female workers reported significantly more symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and emotional exhaustion than males. Workers with the United Nations and related agencies reported fewest symptoms. Higher levels of social support, stronger team cohesion, and reduced exposure to chronic stressors were associated with improved mental health. National humanitarian staff members in Gulu have high exposure to chronic and traumatic stress and high risk of a range of poor mental health outcomes. Given that work-related factors appear to influence the relationship between the two strategies are suggested to support the well-being of national staff working in such contexts.

New Soldiers in the War on Disasters

Humanity is “winning the war on war”; so says Joshua S. Goldstein (2011) in his recent book about the decline of armed conflict worldwide. The assertion may seem shocking based on the constant stream of negative coverage of international conflicts. Instead, Mr. Goldstein argues, decades of effort and sacrifice by people working through international organizations, humanitarian aid agencies, and popular movements around the world are making a measurable difference in reducing violence. There is reason to be optimistic about a peaceful future. One might also surmise, based on recent media coverage, that natural disasters are claiming more lives than ever before. However, of the more than 60 million deaths resulting from natural disasters over the past 100 years, approximately 85% occurred before 1950 (Bandyk 2010). The world is apparently getting safer, despite incidences of natural disasters increasing approximately 5% annually since the 1960s. Again, the efforts of international organizations, humanitarian aid agencies, scientists, and engineers appear to be paying off. The very nature of this special edition is proof of such efforts. Unfortunately, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, which claimed more than 220,000 lives (Rettner 2010), illustrates the inequality between wealthy and poor nations when it comes to disaster preparedness. Matthew Kahn, professor at the University of California, Los Angeles Institute of the Environment, observed that 65% of deaths from disasters between 1985 and 1999 occurred in countries in which annual incomes were less than $760 per capita. Countries with a higher gross domestic product have fewer deaths from natural disasters, likely a result of the ability to afford better building materials and an organized emergency response. However, greater wealth means that there is more wealth to destroy. Disasters’ cost to insurers has doubled in the past decade, so insurance companies are increasingly engaging engineers to assess losses and promoting more resilient building standards. My company projects our property loss division to grow faster than any other component of the business in the coming years. The practice serves insurance companies and their representative attorneys and adjusters in evaluating the scope and nature of a loss. Besides being profitable, the work also provides a unique opportunity for engineers, particularly younger engineers, to experience building failures firsthand. Responding to this type of work can be a challenge for traditional design firms. Immediately following a loss event, a large number of staff must be mobilized and sent to the site. Often, assignments can last weeks or months and require tedious canvassing of the project site. Younger engineers are frequently tapped for the work because of fewer local commitments and a willingness to take on physically challenging work. Such exposure to disaster sites is beneficial to the careers of younger engineers. The opportunity to travel to different parts of the country and the world expands the worldview of the investigators. Observing failed designs helps inform future design decisions. Coordinating with local officials, emergency responders, insurance companies, and other experts expands engineers’ perceived role in the community. It’s reasonable to hope that these engineers will hone their skills and become vocal proponents of improved disaster response at home and abroad. In recent years, engineers from Thornton Tomasetti have been mobilized to provide property loss consulting for damages from Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Chilean earthquake, the 2011 Joplin, Missouri, tornado, and the 2011 New Zealand earthquakes. These engineers will take from these experiences lessons to inform their future careers as professionals. To date, I have not been called on to travel to such large disaster sites, but I have learned many lessons from similar projects. Last year, I worked with a group of students from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who planned to travel to Talca, Chile, to assist in the earthquake recovery. This city experienced more damage than the capital because of the more traditional building techniques used. With the help of local engineers, the team came to L E A D E R S H I P O N T H E E N T R Y L E V E L