Reliability-seeking networks in complex emergencies

TLDR

The humanitarian field has seen a surge in NGOs and military actors, making coordination a top agenda item, yet lack of authority, competition, and information‑sharing barriers hinder decision making, and achieving reliability requires resilience through flexibility and diversity, which single organisations struggle to provide. The article aims to identify key coordination challenges in complex emergencies and explore their theoretical implications. The study concludes that a network structure is preferable for humanitarian relief operations.

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify major coordination challenges during complex emergencies, and discuss some theoretical implications of these challenges. The huge increase in non-governmental humanitarian organisations and also military forces involved in emergencies during the last 15 years has put professional coordination on top of the international humanitarian agenda. The main coordination challenge highlighted in recent literature is that lack of authority to coordinate or command hampers decision making. Furthermore, the large number of actors hampers coordination due to competition, different mandates and reluctance to share information. Seeking reliability in coordination within the high-hazard and rapidly changing environment in a complex emergency should rely on resiliency (flexibility and diversity). Flexibility and especially diversity is hard to obtain for one single multi-purpose organisation in the hostile environment of a complex emergency. Thus, a network structure is preferable for humanitarian relief operations.