How to spark a cultural and resource reformation in the world of disasters

Tactivate
Tactivate
Nov 1 · 9 min read

In the aftermath of large-scale disasters there is a mass mobilization of good will, resources and energy. These emergencies offer a clear path to “be of service” which strikes at the fundamental hardwired core of humanity. There are few tangible opportunities as seemingly straight forward to truly help others in a time of need than in the immediate aftermath of significant large scale emergencies. However, as the frequency and severity of these incidences continue to increase we have to examine whether or not well intentioned efforts are actually helpful or if they are in fact detrimental in the longterm.

There is a glib definition of insanity which states “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. This very much applies to the current state of the humanitarian assistance and disaster response community (HADR) and donor culture. Its time to spark a paradigm shift from individual donors, NGOs, entrepreneurs, government agencies, the private sector to vulnerable municipalities. The vast majority of efforts and resource allocations are reactionary in nature not proactive. We must inverse this reality.

If the “best defense is good offense” then we are far behind the eight ball in regards to dealing with current realties in the most effective manner.

The cost of natural disasters in the US alone in the past two yeas sheds light on the magnitude of the losses sustained with 2017 yielding $306.2B and 2018: $91B. What these numbers don’t cover is the amount of charitable dollars spent on disaster related aid. The point of this piece is not to dig into the statistics. Instead, the intent is to point out a macro cultural trend that is fueling future vulnerability and perpetuating dependency.

Given the changing dynamics we face as a collective global community in light of the severity of events we are encountering, an evolved approach to how we deal with them must be considered. We must re-examine how resources are marshaled and deployed and the efficacy current humanitarian and donor culture has on future-proofing communities against inevitable repeat events. We must make the shift from reactionary to proactive.

Image from Climate.gov depicting the major disasters of 2017

As the old adage from Lao Tsu goes “if you give a hungry man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime”. The capabilities and capacity of the private sector and donor communities that activate post disaster are incomprehensible. This is not in reference to those in the business of contracting and the disaster capitalist ecosystem (which, while perverse in many ways and in need of massive overhauling) is of paramount importance. This is about local companies in impacted areas, large corporations, informal networks and the donor population that activates to provide aid.

I have observed the same dynamic at play since 2010 when I was involved with my first major response effort in Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake. Hundreds of millions of dollars of supplies were shipped through logistically complex and costly means to a major airport. These supplies were in large part irrelevant, a threat to local supply and commerce and at best palliative instead of strategic. They also often failed to reach last mile needs and sat and went to waste in central staging areas. This dynamic has been repeated over and over from Texas, the Philippines to Puerto Rico.

Trying to solve challenges from top down and from an outside — in approach instead of looking for local capacity within impacted areas and amplifying it to solve from the bottom up will is unsustainable.

This is not to imply that there is not an acute response phase when lives simply need to be saved, shelter, and medical supplies and food and water are needed. However, there are often better ways to address these needs, even in most cases in the direct aftermath of occurrences than shipping in metric tons of meals ready to eat (MREs), pallets of water and warehouses full of clothing and toys.

Often a large generator, welder, hydrologic engineer and steel worker is all that is needed (as was the case in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria) to repair an aquifer that could deliver water to ten thousand people. However the requests of the local Mayor were ignored for the few strategic assets he needed in leu of large shipments of wasteful bottles of water from external resources via broken supply chains which was a short term and costly solve at best. But this is not how our aid community or donors are trained or equipped to think and act. The capacity to source and empower local last mile capacity is not yet an inherent part of the cultural DNA of the disaster preparedness and response community or NGOs active in the space.

In every disaster there are three distinct phases to include response, recovery and stability. What is missing from this equation, in large part, is mitigation and proactive readiness. While on the minds of most, there are negligible resources and funds allocated to proactive preparedness measures.

If we do not do a better job of “making ready” to better withstand these events at the local community level we are going to perpetuate the dynamic of dependence on inefficient and resource intensive reactionary responses and external aid that often further impugns the integrity of the local economic ecosystem and slows longterm sustainable recovery.

Donor psyche is not yet equipped to steward dollars proactively to mitigation efforts when in fact this would be the most effective form of charity. For every $1 spent on proactive emergency mitigation and readiness efforts $6 are saved in recovery spend (NIBS report). Until the footage rolls in of destroyed houses, flooding and absolute destruction — the relief machine sits largely dormant.

The reality is the severity and frequency of these events, are in large part to much for government to handle on their own. We can either continue to attack a perceived lack of response capacity or we can shift aid, donor and community efforts to be more proactive to meet conventional resources half way in tackling our new found reality. Its time local communities and individuals took more responsibility for themselves.

We must foster a “proactive whole of community” approach to readiness instead of perpetuating resource posturing and allocation on a reactionary basis. We must recognize each stakeholder for the skills and resources they bring to the table from the government, military to individual donors and impacted populations and we must go to work to shift resources from reactionary support to proactive training and readiness measures.

The NGO Mamma Hope that tackles poverty in Africa did a lot to change donor culture when they attacked “aid porn” and instead of showing children with distended bellies surrounded by flies to raise funds, they exhibited how incredibly bright and dynamic the youth was they set out to help. The video “Alex Presents Commando” produced by Joe Sabia that Mamma Hope put out helped to change the narrative and donor behavior.

This same type of shift needs to occur in the disaster space. How do we re-brand giving and resource allocation to shift efforts from reactionary to proactive?

What if the incredible resources and response efforts mustered by the Nexus Global Community in support of local recovery in response to Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas were in part directed to meeting the needs of Bahamians in a way that would stem the need for external aid in future occurrences? What if the same social entrepreneurial prowess and networked potential that was able to source aircraft, ships and millions of dollars in support was activated prior to hurricane season to proactively prepare the vulnerable region long before Hurricane Dorian popped onto the radar?

These response efforts exhibit the incredible capability, capacity and willingness of the private sector to step in and to have serious humanitarian impact. That is to be celebrated, but the approach also must be adapted as reactionary adhoc efforts are no longer sufficient no matter how well intentioned and impressive. They reflect a working really hard, not really smart approach to aid. There is a better way we all must work to adapt to and that is directing resources to making ready instead of focusing on reactionary response efforts.

Every major disaster presents the opportunity to entrepreneurially address how communities recover in ways that position them to better withstand future events. If response efforts do not take this into consideration and only focus on addressing short term acute issues than than a detrimental dynamic is perpetuated. The opportunity exists in leveraging the mass attention and resources dedicated to disaster response in the early stages to both assist with solving the immediate life saving needs, but also to put infrastructure in place to stem future loss of life.

Around 30% of households made disaster related donations in 2017 alone according to a Center for disaster philanthropy report. The capital and resources exist to affect serious sea-change in how we deal with disasters. Its a matter of reeducating and stewarding these resources in more effective ways than on reactionary palliative responses.

Examples of approaches that shift the dynamic:

Manolo Lopez: There was a significant shortage of food in the early after math of the storm as grocery stores had no power and there was no electricity. Chef Manolo Lopez took a very innovative approach to addressing this challenge. He amassed a network of local restaurant owners across the island and worked to pay them what he and his supporters could to cook mass meals for the community. This employed local resources and stimulated the local economy to address the local needs on hand using existing resources. One of the most valuable bi-products of this effort was establishing the behavior of uniting networks of suppliers and resturant owners that now have an experience with a model that can be rapidly re-activated in future occurrences.

Joint Foundation For Puerto Rico, Focussed Mission, Tactivate and Government effort: In 2017 in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria a multi-agency working group of local entrepreneurs, foundations, government, Federal and DoD resources were marshaled in an adhoc fashion to tackle a connectivity issue that took the food stamp (EBT) system off line. With a large percentage of the island dependent on electronic benefits to buy food and water — there was no longer any selling and or purchasing power rendering the local supply chain impotent to meet the needs of the community. A small $33k investment to install small, cheap satellite terminals on remote food markets led to $3m + in local food and water sales — addressing food security issues while implementing systems that future proofed these stores against going off line in future storms(CNA case study page 13).

These efforts decreased the need for external aid water and food supplies that were failing to reach remote regions due to broken supply chains and instead empowered the local commerce ecosystem to begin to heal itself through empowerment of capital flow. The crux was identifying the food and water shortage was not a supply issue, but a connectivity challenge — something the aid community failed to do.

Steve Birnbaum and the Focused Mission Team making a satellite terminal install in Puerto Rico to bring a local super market’s point of sale system back online

Mariana and Chrsitine Nieves: The town of Mariana was one of the hardest hit by Hurricane Maria — yet received little to no aid in the initial response phase. Instead of suffering the community united and activated and found that they were best equipped to handle their own recovery. With minor support from strategic outside resources like Chris Kluckhuhn and the Avwatch team who brought early communications capacity to the local village, a grass root local foundation lead by Chrsitine Nieves and team, Proyecto Apoyo Mutuo Mariana led recovery efforts in a way that prepared the town to thrive in future impacts. From water purification systems to solar generators and group kitchens, the model exemplified how locally led and externally supported efforts can both address acute immediate challenges while serving to prepare for future emergencies.

Working with Luis Arocho prior CIO to Puerto Rico and Christine Nieves to support logistics on the install of the Box Power unit in Mariana Puerto Rico

As times change models must adapt. the global community is starting to wake up to the need to reimagine how we address disasters. New, innovative models are starting to emerge and the reality is starting to shift from unprepared to proactively ready.

We will see an increased interest in skills acquisition in the realm of emergency medical and general preparedness skills. We will see a major spike in small scale alternative energy solutions and an entirely new micro economy and ecosystem develop around all things proactive readiness. The most exciting part of this movement is that it is predicated on collective community capacity, in that it requires people to come together to train and to collaborate. This physical interaction, working toward preparing oneself as an individual and as a collective community presents a very interesting approach to combating the pervasive sense of isolation and lack of purpose felt by so many today.

Tactivate

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Tactivate

Meshing Special Operations veteran disaster response and entrepreneurial communities to create ventures and to solve challenges in disasters.

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