Research and Critical Analyse of humanitarian practices

Document Type:Research Paper

Subject Area:Health Care

Document 1

The standards are meant to ensure that there is improved efficacy in the delivery of services and that those in charge operate within the required guidelines1. Even though these principles exist, there are other agencies, which do not align their activities, operations, and processes to the underlying standards or values. These are “non-traditional” actors in the humanitarian aid sector (Holmes 2013). This results to negative impacts as pertains to the outcomes of voluntary services. To prevent that from happening, it is important that stakeholders should develop policies, which compel these actors to abide by the set standards and principles. When a humanitarian organization intends to assist flood victims or fire victims, the effectiveness of their operations is determined by their capability to prevent treat the victims and to provide a safe haven for all of them so that they are able to lead comfortable lives after the incident.

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Even though the number of lives they are in a position to save do not matter a lot, being able to attain their goals indicates the effectiveness of their services. As such, effectiveness has to do with the gals or objectives of the programs and initiatives that these organizations engage in2. On the other hand, efficiency in this aspect entails being able to attain the required results using an optimal budget and doing accomplishing the best outcomes. An operation that is meant to save 10 lives but only ends up with 5 or less is described as an inefficient one in relation to the provision of emergency services. It is important that no one should ignore those who are suffering. They should be as humane as possible.

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When carrying out their activities, the main purpose should be to uphold dignity and respect for human life under all circumstances. The OCHA has to ensure that this happens whenever there is a program or activity offering humanitarian action. All the organizations that take part in this initiative must comply with the humanity principle. When politicians have control over these services, they might end up channeling a lot of resources to their people, some of which are not needed, at the expense of needy victims. This is a bad trend that undermines humanitarian action (Slim 2015). The United Nations General Assembly has always insisted on adherence to these principles in humanitarian action. Other organizations have also expressed a high level of commitment to the principles.

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One of the initiatives by individual organizations to comply with these standards is the Red Crescent and Red Cross’ Code of Conduct, among other interventions. As such, they become receptive of the services and can provide the necessary support to these firms even as they carry out their functions (Bouchet-Saulnier 2013). OCHA has the mandate of ensuring that humanitarian action as performed by a number of agencies is well-coordinated and principled. It has to enforce compliance to these rules or values. In order to achieve that, it encourages the use of practical measures as pertains to compliance. It engages with the state and federal agencies on ensuring that this is done. Some of the victims will feel discriminated against while those close to him will benefit more.

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One of the most significant negative impacts of non-compliance is lack of good will from local communities or those whose relatives and friends need help. When there is a war between two communities and the providers of humanitarian aid sides with one of these groups, it is important to note that in the future, the rival group will not be receptive of their services. It is because they will feel like the HA is their enemies’ agent. This does not only impact on the outcomes of the services provided. From the discussions above, failure to adhere to the principles, therefore lead to inefficient humanitarian organizations. The non-traditional actors might be effective yet on efficiency, they score zero. When that happens, their gains might only be beneficial in the short-term basis.

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However, the effects of non-compliance are likely to affect the organization as pertains to the provision of such services over a period. For instance, once the action of one humanitarian organization leads to the negative stereotyping of such organizations within a community, anyone who will be visiting to offer similar services will be regarded using that lens. Even as that kind of training is done, more emphasis should be on high ethical and moral standards in those firms. It is because individuals who do what is right as a result of the urge to be righteousness are likely to implement the rules as opposed to those who act in a certain way because of fear of the consequences. In humanitarian action, there are situations when there has to be choices between tradeoffs and an ethical mind will always result into better decisions.

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