The sphere core humanitarian standards are aimed at helping people in difficult situations. They are designed as a reminder for people who want to improve the quality and effectiveness of the care they provide (The Standard – CHS, 2021). They also consist of a set of principles that fight to meet people’s basic needs around the world (What Are Humanitarian Standards?, 2018). To understand how the standards work will be considered three of them, their application to natural disasters, and the characteristics of incidents.
The first standard is humanitarian aid that is appropriate and relevant. It means that material assistance or services must be equivalent to loss. The second standard says that it must be effective and timely. In emergencies such as hurricanes and floods, minutes count; hence, both time and performance are essential. The third standard is called coordinated and complementary assistance provision. It implies organization and complex impact to achieve the best effect.
The most often neglected standard is the last one discussed in the previous block. Humanitarian organizations are legally responsible and must comply with the basic points (The Core Humanitarian Standard, 2019). The environment is changing rapidly, and medical teams may arrive with no specific skills or lack of logistics, which leads to inapplicable help (Waldman, 2018). Moreover, it is not easy to organize resources to assist in the shortest possible time. Coordination and complementary provision of assistance are the most challenging points to accomplish, and therefore, irregularities occur.
The main characteristics of disasters are broken houses, lack of roads, and inability to obtain food and water. For example, in 2018, South Asia floods damaged 18,000 schools and left 1.8 million children out of education, and the humanitarian help spent less than 2% of aid on solving the problem (Briggs, 2018). It clearly shows the poor organization and lack of provision of additional services. Help aids can find people under the rubble of houses and drag them out, but they cannot solve social problems.
The sphere’s humanitarian standards are beneficial to society but require revision and additions. They include nine rules aimed at improving the quality of the services provided by the rescue services. Considering natural disasters, the clause on coordinated and complementary provision is most often violated. It is reflected in the inability to provide children with resources for education in their schools. The humanitarian standards imply their mandatory observance only in case of a threat to life.
References
Briggs, B. (2018). Natural disasters leave millions homeless and children out of school. Theirworld. Web.
The core humanitarian standard on quality and accountability. (2019). Resource Centre. Web.
The standard – CHS. (2021). Corehumanitarianstandard. Web.
Waldman, R. (2018). Natural and Human-Made disasters. Cdc. Web.
What are humanitarian standards? | sphere standards. (2018). Sphere. Web.