alt=Row of young children sitting or squatting in the dirt wearing dirty clothing, smeared in excrement, one child clutches two towels|thumb|Humanitarian crisis in [[West Bengal]]
A humanitarian crisis (or sometimes humanitarian disaster) is defined as a singular event or a series of events that are threatening in terms of health, safety or well-being of a community or large group of people. It may be an internal or external conflict and usually occurs throughout a large land area. Local, national and international responses are necessary in such events.
Each humanitarian crisis is caused by different factors and as a result, each different humanitarian crisis requires a unique response targeted towards the specific sectors affected. This can result in either short-term or long-term damage. Humanitarian crises can either be natural disasters, human-made disasters or complex emergencies. In such cases, complex emergencies occur as a result of several factors or events that prevent a large group of people from accessing their fundamental needs, such as food, clean water or safe shelter.
Common causes of humanitarian crises are wars, epidemics, famine, natural disasters, energy crises and other major emergencies. If a crisis causes large movements of people it could also become a refugee crisis. For these reasons, humanitarian crises are often interconnected and complex and several national and international agencies play roles in the repercussions of the incidences.
Categories
There is no simple categorization of humanitarian crises. Different communities and agencies tend to have definitions related to the concrete situations they face. A local fire service will tend to focus on issues such as flooding and weather induced crises. Medical and health related organizations are naturally focused on sudden crises to the health of a community.
Humanitarian crisis may arise from both natural and human-made conflicts and disasters. Humanitarian crisis from natural disasters include tsunami, earthquake, hurricane, floods, droughts, and wildfires that may result in disruption through damage to property, physical injury and death, psychological distress, displacement of individuals and families, and prolonged disruption in normal daily activities. On the other hand, crisis from manmade disasters such as wars, social unrest, protests, conflicts, and terrorist attacks have a broad range of impacts on the physical, mental, and social well-being of the individuals affected.
An ongoing or lingering pandemic may amount to a humanitarian crisis, especially where there are increasing levels of virulence, or rates of infection as in the case of AIDS, bird flu or tuberculosis. Major health-related problems such as cancer, global warming typically require an accentuated or punctuated mass-event to justify a label of "crisis" or "disaster".
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) lists categories which include different types of natural disasters, technological disasters (i.e. hazardous material spills, Chernobyl-type nuclear accidents, chemical explosions) and long-term human-made disasters related to "civil strife, civil war and international war". Internationally, the humanitarian response sector has tended to distinguish between natural disasters and complex emergencies which are related to armed conflict and wars.
Impacts
Women's social status in humanitarian crises
thumb|Female refugees sitting on the ground in [[Pakistan.]]
Socially, women and children (mostly girls) receive a significantly decreased amount of attention in response to humanitarian crises. Women and children make up 3 quarters of refugees or displaced persons at risk post-crisis. A quarter of this population is of reproduction age and a fifth of this population is likely to be pregnant. In times of emergency and such crises, deaths associated with pregnancy, reproductive health, sexual violence and sexual exploitation increase drastically especially amongst females. During such emergencies, women lose access to family planning services, prenatal care, postpartum care and other health services. The heightened risk of female health and safety makes them vulnerable to disease, violence and death.
Non-profit organizations such as the Women's Refugee Commission deal with aiding particularly women suffering from various types of humanitarian crises. According to the Women's Refugee Commission, during the first hours of a humanitarian crisis, women and young children are at most risk. During such an event, agencies and organizations approach matters variably. However, the top critical requirements within hours and months of the crises include: keeping the refugees and internally displaced persons away from danger, allowing access to fundamental needs such as food and healthcare, identification information, preventing sexual violence and others.
Socio-economic realities of humanitarian crises
Economic issues can lead to humanitarian crises or humanitarian crises can lead to economic downfalls. If it occurs after a humanitarian crisis affects a nation, it is imperative to return the livelihoods in the economic settings of the nation. One of the critical needs on the Women's Refugee Commission's list is providing education and economic opportunities in order to maintain the economic qualities of the region. It is done by using the skills of the displaced persons or refugees involved to provide them with opportunities to gain income.
If it occurs as a cause of humanitarian crisis, the society would have been in a state of civil insecurity and economic shortfalls, which could cause the government to collapse. This can also result from food insecurity, famines, corruptions and various other issues. Direct effects of this situation include human rights violations, violence and mass murders.
The El Niño weather pattern is expected to exacerbate hunger, displacement, and health risks globally. Governments and organizations like the UN Food and Agriculture Organization are focusing on anticipatory action and early response to mitigate the effects of climate-induced damage.
Environmental and ecological impacts
In the cases of humanitarian crises, especially natural disasters such as tornadoes, tsunamis and earthquakes, these incidences leave environmental and ecological impacts on the regions affected. The aftermaths of natural disasters can lead to a significant decrease in natural resources while making the region prone to future issues. For example, if a forest fire occurs in a large region, the area may be susceptible to air pollution, dust clouds, release of carcinogenic gases and others. Forest ecological wildlife, for example, is severely impacted by such events. In the cases of water natural disasters such as floods and tsunamis, extensive damage due to the water is prevalent. Fish, corals and other ocean life is impacted, which further impacts the livelihoods of fishermen.
According to the World Bank data, there is a worrying water scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa. The Stockholm International Water Institute emphasizes the need for urgent action in water policy, and suggests decentralizing decision-making to better manage the crisis.
Mental health impacts
Mental health impacts can cause additional concerns for populations affected by humanitarian crises. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in five individuals in a disaster-impacted population may already suffer from a mental health disorder that could then be exacerbated by the disaster context. Mental health disorders included in this estimate range from mild anxiety and/or depression to severe and persistent conditions like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Acute mental health impacts
The stress of a humanitarian crisis can cause acute, or short-term, anxiety in the population of people affected. Humanitarian crises often displace people from their homes and cut off their access to resources, which affects their ability to meet their basic needs and creates significant anxiety. This acute anxiety may impact the population's capacity to care for themselves via the resources provided by humanitarian aid groups in the short-term. Acute stress can exacerbate pre-existing conditions for individuals who already suffer from mental health disorders, making serious conditions like depression or schizophrenia more difficult to live with. Though a few large studies have been conducted, research gaps exist in investigating chronic mental health impacts of humanitarian crises, which is why these estimates have so much variation. Research states that mental health is often neglected by first responders. Disaster can have lasting psychological impacts on those affected. When individuals are supported in processing their emotional experiences to the disaster this leads to increases in resilience, increases in the capacity to help others through crises, and increases in community engagement. When processing of emotional experiences is done in a collective manner, this leads to greater solidarity following disaster. As such, emotional experiences have an inherent adaptiveness within them, however the opportunity for these to be reflected on and processed is necessary for this growth to occur.
Sustainable solutions
thumb|[[United Kingdom|British humanitarian services bringing aid to a Sierra Leone village recovering from war.]]
There is no singular solution to any one humanitarian crisis. Often, the primary cause of a humanitarian crisis is intertwined with several other factors. Further, one repercussion can lead to another which may lead to another. For instance, in the case of a flood, fish and ocean life is impacted, an environmental and ecological impact. This can further impact humans the source of income for fishermen, an economical impact. This causes the residents of this particular area to be stripped from their source of food and their culture of consuming sea fish. This can lead to women and children being forced to work in dangerous conditions to gain income and food, a social impact. Evidently, one crisis can have many impacts that are interconnected with one another and there is no single solution. The Feinstein International Center at Tufts University works to understand and find solutions to the intersection of various factors that contribute to humanitarian crisis.
Preparing for humanitarian crises
Disaster preparedness is critical to building both national and international capacity to prevent, respond to, and recover from humanitarian emergencies. Disaster preparedness activities can be categorized into material preparedness (building to code, avoiding building in hazardous areas, strengthening homes, preparing emergency kits, etc.) and into behavioral preparedness (training, early warning, disaster insurance, etc.). The international community possesses five key to key entities for guidance programming, research, and funding for disaster preparedness capacity-building:
- United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction: The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction implements the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). The UNISDR, led by the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction, serves, "…as the focal point in the United Nations system for the coordination of disaster reduction and to ensure synergies among disaster reduction activities". A component of UNISDR work is implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030.
- Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) : OCHA is a United Nations office, "…responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies." OCHA's leader operates as both the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and as the Emergency Relief Coordinator, advocating for increased awareness of, preparedness for, and response to humanitarian emergencies worldwide. In 2005, the IASC released its Transformative Agenda with 10 protocols to, "…improve the effectiveness of humanitarian response through greater predictability, accountability, responsibility and partnership". Protocol 8: "Common Framework for Preparedness" and Protocol 9: "Emergency Response Preparedness" provide guidance countries and humanitarians can implement for risk assessment and preparedness planning. Additionally, IASC also oversees global humanitarian clusters as a part of the Cluster Approach.
- Global Clusters: To aid coordination during the humanitarian programme cycle, the UN established the Cluster Approach. Clusters are groups of humanitarian organizations with explicit responsibilities for coordinating action within each humanitarian sector.
By expanding the responsibility for humanitarian crises beyond the UN's singular authority, the number of actors involved in the coordination of the system has simultaneously increased. but differ in their level of operation. INGOs operate internationally, and NGOs pertain to a domestic level of activity. Non-governmental organizations overall have a non-profit structure, which means that they are solely providing services for the good of the population at risk and in need of assistance, without expectations of return benefits. Which allows them to focus on solidarity efforts in serving human needs and protecting human rights. The organizations are thus dependent on volunteers' investment in the shared vision of the entity. Their work also includes preventive efforts of serving as experts to deliver knowledge on management practices to the other actors. Additionally, by centering their work around a shared vision of establishing long-term peace through coordinated strategies of reconciliation and conflict assistance, they seek to efficiently fulfill their role in the humanitarian crisis management cluster. Several international NGOs were also involved in Myanmar to deliver appropriate relief. Their assistance allowed limited contact with the national government in Myanmar yet reached beneficial agreements with other local authorities, as well as established communication and cooperation with local NGOs and UN actors. However, because of the large number of actors involved in the crisis, the organizations faced challenges in the coordination between actors to provide efficient and non-coinciding crisis management.
In addition to the coordination aspect and its significance in humanitarian crisis management provided by NGOs, there is another potential strategy highlighting efficient communication to implement sufficient responses. NGOs often have to work with a diverse set of actors which may present challenges to efficient cooperation if expectations and goals divide across partnerships. To overcome obstacles within diverse interactions, NGOs may utilize three strategic environments of operation to establish efficient communication between parties. First, the "internal workplace" considers the diverse environment closely working with the NGOs, consisting of the organization's employees and volunteers from the crisis exposed area. Second, the "inter-organizational forum" Strategic thinking, coordination of actors, and efficient communication in diverse environments are all potential strategies that NGOs can use on both international and local levels to address humanitarian crises. As each organization and crisis is different, there is no such thing as a perfect strategy to manage humanitarian crises across the board.