Essay Sample on Regulation of Humanitarian Assistance

Introduction

The essay elaborates on the regulation of processes for humanitarian Organizations such as Red Cross, involved in offering assistance when a crisis occurs. Whether regulation standards that guide such humanitarian organizations should be implemented has been a subject of debate over the world (Aderhold 207). The inquiry discusses whether the humanitarian organizations should be regulated or otherwise. It presents insights into a broad comprehension of needs and challenges for providing genuine solutions required for improving the services delivered and how the projects are managed (209). Besides, the world is prone to the occurrence of various phenomena, or activities that pose disastrous risks to human life. When they happen, an external force needs to come in and rescue the victims in a most appropriate way that promotes humanity. According to Bornstein, it is essential that the humanitarian organizations are regulated by an external body. Besides, they should follow the internationally accepted principles and ethics guide the humanitarian organizations in offering services to the various crises (659). The requirement for all humanitarian organizations to maintain acceptable humane standards when carrying out humanitarian services is seen to be of paramount importance hence raising a question on whether all humanitarian organizations be regulated and how?

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Some individuals possess these human attributes such as compassion and altruism for the promotion of human welfare. Such individuals voluntarily form organizations that are entirely dedicated to serving human beings. The Red Cross is one of the major humanitarian organizations in the world and it exists in most countries over the world. There are accepted standards and procedures that are followed by the Red Cross in ensuring quality service provision to the victims. According to Bornstein, the magnitude of the services delivered by humanitarian organizations to the affected community can be defined as a science of reconstruction and development (659). These organizations run and manage their projects in phases with a good strategy and plan. However, the emerging discussion criticizes the eligibility of some of the organizations with some recommending that, the humanitarian organizations should be controlled by government.

According to Gerson and Nat, two main factors affect the operation of a humanitarian organization; aids disbursement and donor accountability and projects might face challenges (782). For example, the tools used may fail due to poor quality and insufficient human resources. However, when the tools fail, the organizations can make adjustments to fit the prevailing environment. Therefore, such failure should not be an excuse to poor services. Self regulated organizations such as the Red Cross have at most times met these requirements. They have always kept the three components; the processes, tools, and people at equilibrium and they have been accountable for their utilization of resources. Some arguments indicate that, intervention of government regulations and oversight can help these organizations achieve the two factors while others think that self regulation is more effective. Those who prefer self regulation support their arguments by stating that humanitarian organizations are already committed to giving better services therefore there is no need for another body to intervene.

Some individuals believe that the internationally acceptable standards for humanitarian organizations are essential for self regulation. Since humanitarian action depends on the primary effort and motivation by the organizations to safeguard the right to life with dignity; four international accepted principles serve as a guideline. The four principles include; humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality (Aderhold 210). Humanity refers to the act of addressing human suffering every time it arises with an objective of protecting human health and life. Any organization or entity should be able to act according to the needs of the service receiver. Humanitarian action should be undertaken only when a need arises depending on the urgency of the matter (212). The partiality that is based on tribe, race, religious belief, political opinion, class, and nationality should always be avoided. Humanitarian service providers should act without interference from politics, military, economic and other external factors in determining where humanitarian action should be provided. The actors should be neutral; they shall not take sides with any party, race, religion or idea that may compromise the process and quality of service provision. These principles are essential for any humanitarian work, and therefore they make the difference between humanitarian work and other forms of action. Besides, by understanding them, one can tell whether a particular organization is qualified to carrying out humanitarian activities.

For external regulation, nine commitments guide a Core Humanitarian Standard; a quality criterion for support, significant actions to meet delivery of duties and responsibilities from the organization to support the operations (Aderhold 210). An external body will ensure the following obligations and quality criteria are followed to achieve success in humanitarian work. The first is that the affected people and communities should get aid that is appropriate to their needs. The second is effectiveness and timeliness. Humanitarian action should be done immediately when a disaster happens and the services provided should be practical and adhering to acceptable standards. Thirdly is provision of a humanitarian response that avoids adverse effects and strengthens local capacities (212). The people and communities affected should not be subjected to another crisis that results from the humanitarian action. The fourth quality criterion bases its criterion on participation, communication, and feedback. The victims should understand their information access right and participation in decision making that may affect their lives either directly or indirectly.

The fifth is welcoming and addressing all complaints from the victims and any other affected parties. Humanitarian action should take into account safe mechanisms for handling complaints from victims. Sixth, a humanitarian response should be complementary and well-coordinated. All service providers in a common area should be able to communicate and arrange on how to integrate their services and come up with a plan that will give the best results for their action. The seventh quality is that the humanitarian actors should be able to continuously learn from their previous experiences and improve their service delivery in the future (Stephenson 43). The eighth quality requires that the humanitarian organizations to support to their staff so that they can, in turn, do their jobs efficiently and competently. Lastly, the organizations involved should manage their resources effectively, ethically and efficiently. The funds used to help the victims should be distributed responsibly and for the intended purpose (44). These commitments and standards require an external body to oversee their implementation; therefore, the government regulations will ensure that the humanitarian organizations achieve these internationally acceptable humanitarian standards (47).

This topic provides research students who are interested in finding out the best ways and standards that can be implemented to ensure that only the eligible humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross can indulge in response to crises. Equally, the essay seeks the government's audience to consider the regulation of these institutions. In the recent past, so many humanitarian organizations are being established on unverified basis which have raised concerns on their eligibility. Aids and donors from different governments and voluntarily from individuals of goodwill fund humanitarian organizations, and some of the donors need to know how the resources are utilized requiring hence indicating some of regulation. According to Hilhorst, Humanitarian organizations have a mandate of performing a wide range of activities and processes to deliver service to humans in times of crisis, emergency, and disasters (Classical humanitarianism and resilience humanitarianism).

Conclusion

Humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross do great work to serve humanity. However, some organizations do not meet the international requirements to indulge in the activity. The processes and activities undertaken by humanitarian organizations include project management based on the internal and the external environment. The components of an organization used in project management are the processes, the tools, and the people, for a project to be successful, the three elements should be at equilibrium since if one fails the rest automatically fail. The purpose of these processes is to ensure that humanitarian organizations registered over the world maintain acceptable standards; hence, providing credibility when they are delivering services to the needy. Therefore, all humanitarian organizations should meet this paramount requirement of maintaining acceptable humane standards when carrying out humanitarian services.

Work Cited

Aderhold, Eltje. From Cold War to Cyber War: the Evolution of the International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict over the Last 25 Years. Springer, 2016. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319190860

Bornstein, Erica. "Faith, Liberty and the Individual in Humanitarian Assistance." Journal of Non-governmental Politics. Vol. 1, no. 1, 2007, pp. 658-667. http://www.academia.edu/19688385/The_Impulse_of_Philanthropy. Accessed 25 Sep, 2018

Gerson, Allan, and Nat J. Colletta. "Humanitarian Assistance." The Future of Peace in the Twenty-First Century. Vol. 1, no. 1, 2003, pp. 781-783. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2642040. Accessed 25 Sep, 2018.

Hilhorst, Dorothea. "Classical humanitarianism and resilience humanitarianism: making sense of two brands of humanitarian action." Journal of International Humanitarian Action, Vol. 3. No. 15, 2018. https://jhumanitarianaction.springeropen.com/articles. Accessed 25 Sep, 2018.

Stephenson, J. M. "Towards a Descriptive Model of Humanitarian Assistance Coordination." Voluntas (manchester). 2006, pp. 41-57. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27928000 Accessed 25 Sep, 2018.