Article Excerpt
Disasters know no borders and can simultaneously hit one or several countries without warning. Having a well-coordinated joint response means that when national authorities are overwhelmed, they have one point of contact rather than multiple to deal with
A joint approach further helps pool expertise and capacities of first responders, avoids duplication of relief efforts, and ensures that assistance meets the needs of those affected.
Pooling together civil protection capacities and capabilities allows for a stronger and more coherent collective response.
Analysis
Although I think it’s a good start to have countries supporting each other within crises, I still think that support should be firstly aliquoted to the countries themselves. To greenlight and coordinate response efforts takes time, and it takes even more time when external sources have to travel to the source of the crisis. Yes it’s good to have external efforts organized into one source, but I think this organization should help to supply resources locally before things happen so the issues can be dealt with internally and therefore swiftly. Of course, the organization’s external efforts can be deployed as further support.
