The USNS Mercy, one of the two hospital ships in the United States Navy, has provided disaster relief and humanitarian assistance for multiple natural disasters around the world. As a self-sustaining 1000-bed hospital, the USNS Mercy provides a full complement of surgical and medical capabilities to care for the sick and injured in a mobile platform environment. This article describes the recen...

humanitarian actors that ‘humanitarian space’ is shrinking. This is largely attributed to developments since the attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001, particularly the use of humanitarian assistance by Western governments to further their political and security objectives. The corollary of this apparent decline in humanitarian space is that things were better in the past. In realit...

This article summarises the key findings of two research studies conducted for the UK Government in 2006-2007. The first was a literature review of evidence about provisions and interventions to meet the needs of people affected by 'emergencies' as defined within the Civil Contingencies Act (2004). Drawing on both historical and contemporary research and practice, the literature review presente...

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, reaching approximately 90 million people with food assistance across 80 countries each year. To deal operational complexities inherent in its mandate, WFP has been developing tools to assist decision makers integrating supply chain decisions departments and functional areas. This paper describes a mixed...

This extended abstract describes a field test of the Field Information Support Tool (FIST) during the international Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief exercise Pacific Endeavor 2010, in Singapore and the Philippines.

Abstract Cash and voucher assistance (CVA) has been gaining traction among humanitarian organizations as the preferred aid modality in disaster relief complex emergencies. While advantages of cash are well documented, ongoing digitalization emergence innovative financial instruments can be associated with new operational challenges a stagnation innovation. This paper reflects on changing enviro...

In this article, we provide an overview of key international guidelines governing the supply of pharmaceuticals during disasters and complex emergencies. We review the World Health Organization's guidelines on pharmaceutical supply chain management and highlight their relevance for military humanitarian assistance missions. Given the important role of pharmaceuticals in addressing population he...