Comparative Review on the Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Relief Teams’ Deployment to Sudden-Onset Disasters

Abstract

When a disaster exceeds the capacity of the affected country to cope with its own resources, the provision of external rescue and health services is required, and the deployment of relief units requested. Recently, the cost of international relief and the belief that such deployment is cost-effective has been questioned by the international community; unfortunately, there is still little informed debate and few detailed data are available. This paper presents the results of a comparative review on the cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) of search and rescue (SAR) and Emergency Medical Team (EMT) deployment. The aim of this work is to provide an overview of the topic, highlight the criteria used to assess the effectiveness, and identify gaps in existing literature. The results show that both deployments are highly expensive, and their success is strongly related to the time they need to be operational; SAR deployments are characterized by limited outcomes in terms of lives saved, and EMTs by insufficient data and lack of detailed assessment. This research highlights that the criteria used to assess the effectiveness need to be explored further, considering different purposes, lengths of stay, and different activities performed, especially for any comparison. This study concludes that data reporting should be mandatory for humanitarian response agencies.

Search without rescue? Evaluating the international search and rescue response to earthquake disasters

“…While INSARAG and the international community should be applauded for the improvements they have made to best practice and coordination, this has not had demonstrable effects on the lives these teams save. 51 This is not down to the lack of skill or efforts of the ISAR teams themselves, who work tirelessly in exceptionally difficult conditions trying to save lives. 29 The likely reason is that the main factor determining lives saved is the time taken for ISAR teams to arrive on site and become operational.…”

July 2021

“…The challenge of managing international and self-deploying animal response organisations has been highlighted from recent events such as bushfires in Australian and the massive explosion in Beirut. Although studies have shown that international disaster rescue deployments are characterised by limited outcomes in terms of (human) lives saved (Bartolucci, Walter & Redmond 2019; Rom & Kelman 2020) the effectiveness of international animal disaster response is less known and warrants research.…”

A case study of disaster decision‐making in the presence of anomalies and absence of recognition

“…In the context of emergency management, hazard‐specific expertise is exceptional knowledge and understanding of the behavioural characteristics and associated risks that a specific agent has the potential to cause (EMPS, 2019; Scheer et al, 2014). Multi‐agency responses requiring increased inter‐operability, the greater frequency of climate‐induced disasters (Kamara, Akombi, Agho, & Renzaho, 2018), inter‐jurisdictional deployments both nationally and internationally (Amat Camacho, Karki, Subedi, & Von Schreeb, 2019; Bartolucci, Walter, & Redmond, 2019) and the expectation that commanders manage non‐hazard‐specific incidents (EMPS, 2019) all point towards this issue becoming more, rather than less of a challenge.…”