International NGOs and the role of network centrality in humanitarian aid operations: a case study of coordination during the 2000 Mozambique floods.
In February 2000, Mozambique suffered its worst flooding in almost 50 years: 699 people died and hundreds of thousands were displaced. Over 49 countries and 30 international non-governmental organisations provided humanitarian assistance. Coordination of disaster assistance is critical for effective humanitarian aid operations, but limited attention has been directed toward evaluating the system-wide structure of inter-organisational coordination during humanitarian operations. Network analysis methods were used to examine the structure of inter-organisational relations among 65 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in the flood operations in Mozambique. Centrality scores were used to estimate NGO-specific potential for aid coordination and tested against NGO beneficiary numbers. The average number of relief- and recovery-period beneficiaries was significantly greater for NGOs with high relative to low centrality scores (p < 0.05). This report addresses the significance of these findings in the context of the Mozambican 2000 floods and the type of data required to evaluate system-wide coordination.
Moore
Spencer
S
Centre for Health and Policy Studies, Department of Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, G230 Health Sciences Bldg, 3330 Hospital Dr. NW, Calgary, AB T2N 4N1, Canada. spencer.moore@ucalgary.ca
Eng
Eugenia
E
Daniel
Mark
M
D000533:Altruism; D004190:Disasters; D006801:Humans; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D007391:International Cooperation; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009073:Mozambique; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D009938:Organizations / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012066:Relief Work / Q000458:organization & administration*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric