INTEGRATING SOCIAL PROTECTION WITH HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE FOR COMMUNITY DISASTER RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Over the past decade, there has been an increase in the need for humanitarian assistance. This increase has been occasioned by the increased frequency of disasters, the severity of the disasters and the protracted nature of conflicts in some regions around the world. Despite the delivery of high amounts of humanitarian assistance, substantial needs have not been met. Some countries have remained in need and have continued to appeal for Humanitarian Assistance every year. In some cases, resources meant for development have been diverted to meet needs of victims of disasters and crises. As such, the need for better crisis prevention and disaster response mechanisms, as well as the need to focus on long-term resilience building form an integral part of Humanity and the Agenda 2030. There is need to focus on resilience through integration of short-term humanitarian assistance activities with interventions that will support sustainable development. One of the strategies proposed to play the dual role of delivering humanitarian assistance in crisis response as well as address the longer-term needs is social protection. Social protection could make it easy for humanitarian assistance to be delivered through existing systems to reach vulnerable groups faster and also prevent or alleviate future humanitarian crises. This paper looks at the possibility of integrating humanitarian assistance with social protection programs as a strategy of supporting resilience and sustainable development in disaster prone regions. This was a desk review study of scholarly articles and reports on disaster risk reduction and responses using search engines of Google Scholar and Harvard Library HOLLIS+. The study established that most of the emergencies that require humanitarian assistance have more often occurred in contexts of chronic poverty and vulnerability, and that resilience of the communities affected by disasters can enhance sustainable development. To harness the benefits of social protection with humanitarian assistance, systems may have to be set up such that linkages should coordinate the provision of short and long-term interventions to address a wider range of needs for sustainable development.