Lessons of the Haiti quake
Leaders from government, military, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) gathered at Harvard to reflect on the response to last year’s devastating Haiti earthquake and begin the search for ways to improve future disaster response. A significant part of the discussion Wednesday and Thursday (March 23 and 24) revolved around the lack of coordination in the massive response that saw more than 350 organizations send personnel with a wide mix of skills to the quake area. The lack of coordination was exacerbated by the fact that the quake struck the island nation’s capital city, Port-au-Prince, and heavily damaged government facilities and equipment, affecting personnel too. “One of the findings was the need to support the government and government structures very early, provide space for them, generators, vehicles,” said Michael VanRooyen, director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. Other sponsors of the closed-door roundtable included the Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on Crisis Leadership, Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for...