The aim of the study is significant to know the effectiveness of humanitarian response for affected community. Some important issues for addressing effectives of humanitarian responses including situation of local disaster context, existing challenges in adoption of standard aid packages and status of following core humanitarian standard and competency level of response team have been analyzed which may help in capacity development plan and better response in future.
The study investigated the effectiveness of humanitarian response in different disaster prone areas of Bangladesh.
Specific objectives are:
- To assess the risk and vulnerability for local level preparedness
- To assess the gaps of need based aid operation
- To identify the competency level of humanitarian actors at organizational level
- To analyze the effectiveness of humanitarian response
- To recommend the development plan of humanitarian response
As per the Global Climate Risk Index (2017), Bangladesh has been ranked as the sixth most affected country by extreme weather events in the last 20 years (Kreft et al., 2016). The impact of climate change falls disproportionately on the livelihood systems of the poorest peoples, undermining their capacity to build sustainable livelihoods and increasing their vulnerability (Tanner et al. 2015). Vulnerability refers to the propensity of exposed elements such as human beings, their livelihoods, and assets to suffer adverse effects when impacted by hazard events (UNDRO 1980; Bogardi and Birkmann 2004; UNISDR 2009; Janssen et al. 2006; Thywissen 2006). The vulnerability of human societies and natural systems to climate extremes is demonstrated by the damage, hardship, and death caused by events such as droughts, floods, heat waves, avalanches, and windstorms (IPCC 2001). Vulnerability describes a set of conditions of people that derive from the historical and prevailing cultural, social, environmental, political, and economic contexts (Cardona et al. 2012).
The field of climate vulnerability assessment has emerged to address the need to quantify how communities will adapt to changing environmental conditions (Hahn et al. 2009). The vulnerability of a given system or society is a function of its physical exposure to climate change effects and its ability to adapt to these conditions. IPCC defines vulnerability as a function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity (IPCC, 2001). Exposure in this case is the magnitude and duration of the climate-related exposure such as a drought or change in precipitation. Sensitivity is the degree to which the system is affected by the exposure, and adaptive capacity is the system’s ability to withstand or recover from the exposure (Ebi et al. 2006). Vulnerability assessment describes a diverse set of methods used to systematically integrate and examine interactions between humans and their physical and social surroundings.
