Coordinating humanitarian operations

Humanitarian operations are critical for saving human life and mitigating financial damages. Natural disasters cause a large demand for humanitarian relief within the United States of America, and create a need for coordination between and within governmental and non-governmental organizations in order to deliver effective postdisaster relief. Past failures in humanitarian operations, including Hurricane Katrina, have revealed the absence of an optimal coordination system that should be implemented for disaster response. On the other hand, ideal coordination systems within the private sector are well-studied, important, and influential because firms maximize profits through coordination. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that insights from the private industry can be applied to humanitarian coordination in order to better save lives and maximize relief budgets. In specific, our findings suggest that the fully distributed coordination system1 is optimal in disaster response in order to save lives and mitigate costs.