NGOs: Pivotal in Disaster Response, Recovery, and Resilience - Essay Sample

Introduction

The non-governmental organization plays a pivotal role in helping disaster-stricken communities recover from shock and build resilience. Housing crisis arises after disasters such as the Canterbury earthquakes, which left many families homeless. The earthquake resulted in 185 deaths. Christchurch and surrounding districts massive housing damage caused trauma to the locals (Giovinazzi et al., 2012). NGOs especially became a critical pillar in providing response, recovery, and capacity building to create resilience in communities affected. Part of the activities that the NGO play include providing emergency relief services to the affected population. Construction of temporary shelters as the priority in humanitarian assistance. When disasters strike challenges on policy gaps that exist on how well the NGO and Government can coordinate for practical and cost-effective response emerge. The problems present opportunities on the best approach to handle such situations when they arise in the future.

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Post Disaster Housing

Post disasters, there are four housing phases. These phases provide an opportunity for NGOs and Government to determine what kind of house can get the acceptance for construction at a particular point in time. The first step is usually to build an emergency shelter. It is the place where people have to live because their homes have been destroyed and they have no place to sleep. It is usually a temporal structure that is only meant to protect the victims of disasters from extreme weather conditions. Governments and mostly Non-Governmental Organizations spend a lot of resources to ensure that disaster victims get a temporal structure that would mitigate further effects of the disaster. Emergency sheltering plays a critical role in disaster management since it provides an easy time for support groups to quickly identify victims in their shelters and offer the necessary assistance especially for NGOs that do not have resources like the Government has to be able to locate victims (Hayles, 2010).

Temporally sheltering has no much difference with emergency sheltering. However, disaster victims stay longer in temporally sheltering compared to emergency shelters. In most cases, temporally protecting becomes an option during disasters where emergency sheltering may not help much, especially. It is an option when the analysis of the accident and its effect will take longer.

Temporally housing and permanent housing for disaster victims is the last stage of ensuring people go back to normalcy. It gives back their lost sense of care, love and ownership. These types of housing require more planning and a lot of resources. They thus take time before construction. Temporally and permanent housing is the last stage of addressing the housing needs for disaster victims, and in most cases, this role of Government (Chang et al., 2010).

Challenges of NGOs Delivering Housing in Disasters

Lack of adequate resources in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery poses a significant challenge for NGOs in responding to the housing crisis. NGOs rely on well-wishers or through donations to mobilize resources to help address the problems when disaster strikes (Chang et al., 2010). The whole process of disaster preparedness, response, and recovery requires not only adequate planning but also resources. How to meet the housing needs of the populations, especially after major natural disasters such as that of the Canterbury earthquake and hurricane Katrina is a big challenge to most NGO based service providers (Giovinazzi, 2012). Housing requires a lot of investment, and despite putting up temporary structures such as the camps the NGO,s need to have a long term plan of restoring permanent structures for the population. Challenges arise when it comes to coordination between the work of NGOs and the Government in disaster response and recovery.

In most parts, there is a lack of clear policy guidelines that delineate the functions of the NGO in disaster, recovery, and the Government. Another challenge arises from the lack of a clear policy framework guiding the collaboration between the government authorities and the nongovernment organization operations. The NGO s lack institutional capacity to handle some complex policy issues that need a quick fix to help the service users. They rely on the mercies of the Government for resource allocation and proper plan on response and recovery. Housing construction requires approvals from relevant government authorities. Lack of appropriate policy guidelines that govern the collaboration between the Government and the NGOs may result in duplication of roles and wastage of resources. At one time, the NGOs will require the support of the Government in implementing some of the recovery programs to help build resilience in the communities affected (Acosta et al., 2011). Challenges always arise, especially when there lacks political goodwill from the Government. The effectiveness of the NGO in rebuilding community lives is limited, especially when the resources are unreliable.

People have secure emotional connections with their homes, and when disaster strikes and they lose such a place, they call home, the shock becomes traumatic. Homes provide ontological security and a sense of identity to people since it is the place where their privacy from the intrusive world. NGO may provide temporary shelters as the first line of response. The victims may not receive mental stability as long as their permanent structures have suffered destruction. The resource constraints and institutional capabilities limit the capacity for the NGO to restoring peace and building resilience of the communities. Homes help people construct their identities. Opportunities arise on the need by the Government to leverage on NGO support services to help address the emotional damage caused when disaster strikes. Both the Government and NGO may lack adequate material and human resource capacity to build resilience for communities, but with a policy framework for collaboration creates an opportunity for resolving (Comerio, 2014).

NGOs face the constraint of limited time and relevant authority to control other institutions. In most cases, disaster victims have many needs. These needs included nutrition, counselling and housing, among others. House is the most expensive need to meet by NGOs. It requires time and a considerable amount of resources. NGOs may not have the capacity to manage the situations for long, unlike Government. The funds are limited too and thus, most NGOs opt-out of proving the need for shelter by disaster victims. Other dynamics that make provision of better housing for disaster victims is the political situation. Politicians have a say on everything, and sometimes they affect the long-term planning for provision of help to disaster victims. No NGO wants to be in confrontation with the politicians (Paidakaki & Moulaert, 2017).

Government red tape is a significant obstacle to NGOs wishing to provide humanitarian assistance. No NGO wants to waste time waiting for approval of work by government agencies that must follow a bureaucratic process that sometimes consumes a lot of time. Provision of housing involves a lot of government agencies that ultimately leads to wastage of time and resources and most NGOs shy away from that. The sites for constructing temporarily and permanent houses are perceived to be in bad shape. It might require a lot of resources for site preparing making a lot of Non-Governmental Organizations opt to engage in other areas of humanitarian assistance. Most NGOs prefer leaving out the issue of housing to Government. The Government is responsible for the long-term wellness of the citizen. NGOs future is limited to the availability of funds and proper management thus may not engage in the longtime project. It is upon the Government to fully support other organizations that work for the best interest of the people. It will encourage more to invest in humanitarian services as opposed to having a red tape in Government that is restrictive (Paidakaki & Moulaert, 2017).

Challenges encountered turn into lessons which, if applied, can facilitate greater coordination between the Government and NGO in improving disaster response, recovery, and response in the future. The NGOs can use the past challenges that emerged in coordinating efforts with the Government to push for a national dialogue that identifies gaps and create policy frameworks for addressing them. There is a need to draft a clear policy that delineates the government role and sets out principles of Government and nongovernment engagement in housing and another disaster, response preparedness, and response (Paton & Johnston, 2017). Examine the framework for NGO disaster planning and map out the areas where opportunities lie for collaboration with the Government. The resource is a challenge facing the NGO in tackling the housing problem in case of disasters. Leveraging on government support and coordination can help create opportunities and address the resource shortfalls in the NGO (Johnson & Mamula, 2014). The Government has the largest share of ensuring the country is well prepared for disaster response and recovery. The NGO s work to enhance such capacity by offering charitable services on a humanitarian basis to the affected populations. Government efforts in improving efficiency and effectiveness in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery can realize boost from NGO partnership. Areas that require support include good policies that demarcate the principles of engagement between the two, including areas of mutual interests and collaboration in the delivery of services (Bilau et al., 2017).

Opportunities for NGOs Delivering Human Services in Disasters

Part of the challenges encountered includes lack of proper communication between the government authorities and the NGO. A policy framework creates opportunities to enhance communication between the NGO and the Government. Past challenges present platforms for both the bodies to chat the structure of engaging each other in addressing disaster challenges. Effective communications present opportunities for the coordination of efforts and efficient utilization of resources. A critical pathway to addressing the resource challenge by both entities is anchored on effective communication and coordination. The NGOs' representation in government plans can help in determining the level of congruence in their disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. The opportunity to develop such a policy agenda would help to leverage routine disaster checks and readiness between the public sector and the non-governmental bodies. NGOs might have plans and policy frameworks that add value to government programs. The Government has skills, institutional capacities, and the resource abilities that can benefit the NGO in addressing the challenges (Acosta & Chandra, 2013).

Collaboration between profit-making organizations and nongovernment organizations present opportunities for addressing the resource gap. The profit-making organizations have elaborate on social corporate responsibility initiatives. Such organizations, however, may lack adequate human and skill capital to handle the disaster when they strike. They may rely on the NGOs' capabilities and channel resources, some of it towards the reconstruction of the housing, healthcare delivery, and preparedness (Johnson & Mamula, 2014). Mapping out collaborative areas and designing proper policy guidelines give rise to opportunities in addressing the disasters when they strike. It builds platforms for harnessing resources, institutional capacities, skills, and capacities of NGOs in addressing hazards adequately within a community...