Increasing Emphasis on Humanitarian Assistance

• Author: Bonnie Stabile,Naoru Koizumi,Thomas Zimmerman,Jeremy Mayer,Edward Septimus,Arnauld Nicogossian,Charles R. Doarn,Otmar Kloiber
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.166
• Published date: 01 December 2015
• Date: 01 December 2015

Editorial

Increasing Emphasis on Humanitarian Assistance

Arnauld Nicogossian, Bonnie Stabile, Otmar Kloiber, Thomas Zimmerman,

Edward Septimus, Naoru Koizumi, Jeremy Mayer, and Charles R. Doarn

As 2015 comes to a close, we express our concern for the many resource

limited, global challenges facing medical and health professionals worldwide.

War, disasters, disease, terrorism, and other insecurities continue to threaten the

well-being of many communities around the world. This year marks the 10th

anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, one of the most devastating natural disasters of

the twenty-f‌irst century. While estimates vary, over 1,800 people lost their lives

and 400,000 were forced to leave their homes, some permanently. In the city of

New Orleans, hurricane damage to the levees and resulting f‌loods destroyed

entire communities. With suffering, death, and damages of more than $100

billion, this catastrophe triggered a serious reconsideration of the U.S. govern-

ment’s and communities’ ability to prepare for and handle environmental risks,

anticipate threats, and respond to natural and human-made hazards. A decade

later, recovery still continues. Massive infusion of resources has helped with

recovery efforts, with major infrastructure and services rebuilt, in some cases to

even better standards than pre-Katrina, yet many affected regions still struggle

and remain undeveloped. Katrina demonstrated that social disparities contribute

signif‌icantly in costs to health and life, and poor post-disaster resilience. This

slow but steady recovery in a U.S. region during peacetime can be contrasted

with other countries suffering from protracted violence.

Iraq, still suffering from armed conf‌lict, has over three million internally

displaced people (IDP). The four years of violence and war in Syria have

produced almost 11 million IDP and refugees, with some 259,000 living in Iraq.

Disparities in humanitarian aid are evident. The “less than 10 percent of IDPs,

and 40 percent of refugees who live in camps get much more attention and

organized assistance than the vast majority who live outside of camps” (Ferris &

Teff, 2015). Iraq, Middle Eastern countries, many African nations, and neighbor-

ing poor communities still suffer from lack of sustainable resources and rising

World Medical & Health Policy, Vol. 7, No. 4, 2015

307

1948-4682 #2015 Policy Studies Organization

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